I sat in my bed for hours, waiting for my time to come. Eventually, when evening rolled around, I left my room and followed arrows that apparently only I could see, which leads me to an elevator. I pressed the button to call the elevator, only to see that the. The elevator car was all the way at the bottom of the building, taking a good three minutes to go to each floor. After a while, I grew irritated with waiting and looked for other elevators. There were no other elevators in the hallway. And just when I was about to sigh and continue waiting for my lift, an elevator crafted from pure gold into the wall directly across From the previous elevator. I was already rather unfazed due to the magical things I had witnessed,  I still felt dread and concern balloon inside me. Eventually, however, sheer laziness overcame my dread and fear and I called the elevator and was immediately met with a small ding as the elevator opened.

After entering, the elevator and immediately noticed that the entire elevator was covered in a sickening yellow hue, from the light on the ceiling, which was so intense, it made my eyes water and sting. The floor which was an ugly shade of green appeared to creak with each and every step I took. The left wall of the elevator was cluttered with tiny white buttons, each roughly the size of a rice grain. The entire elevator gave me a sense of queasiness and made my stomach lurch a few times. I had to stop for a few seconds to adjust before looking for the first floor. Eventually, I found the button, which was practically 3 inches off of the floor, and pressed it. what had happened next was quite painful and weird. 

The button crumbled away, revealing a dark blue leech oozing white slime from its golden teeth, as well as oozing a sticky blue substance from its body. the creature gurgled as it covered around my forearm and began to rip into my flesh. I howled in pain because I could tell that each individual teeth were perfectly sunk into my veins and they felt like flaming spikes. I began smashing the leech against the floor multiple times, only for it to stay on my arm and keep on suckling on my blood and veins. I could see rivulets of blood seep out from where the creature was feasting. An intense burning sensation raked across my arm. And I noticed the leech was getting fatter and fatter. And it took me a while but eventually I figured out what was happening: the creature was sucking my blood!

The room swiveled, slowly at first, but over time it quickened in pace and before I knew it, the room was spinning so fast I could hear the gales of wind It wasn’t making.  and spin. My arm began to throb and pulse and all my senses appeared to have heightened drastically to tortuous levels. I could hear every little thing for miles. And my ears began to bleed due to being overwhelmed with the constant noise of people walking, birds screeching, the unmistakable sounds of people doing different types of magic, and the constant chattering and talking of people. I could hear it all. My senses were so overtly bombarded that I didn’t even notice that the elevator was falling at an alarming rate. Then, just as swiftly as my senses intensified, they depleted back to their normal selves. The elevator came to a sudden halt and I slammed into the ceiling, head first, and stayed in the ceiling for a second too long before crashing to the floor with a thud, just as the doors swiveled open with a ding. I slowly got to my feet as my vision came back to normal.

I could view that the elevator leads to a room with slick steel floors and chairs in rows of twos with a glass door to the right, revealing what appeared to be a Fishing boat that was freshly tethered to a palm tree outside. I looked down at my arm, only to see that it looked like it had never even been hurt in the first place. The skin tissue wasn’t even damaged in the slightest. The leech creature, which was now back to its original form,  was on the ground flailing wildly and making what could only be described as: “the most adorable growl in the known world” And although I hate to say it if someone were to listen to the first floor of Lazarus at approximately 2:08 pm, they would’ve heard an audible “Awww” Emanating from inside the building. I’m not saying it was from me of course, but I will say it happened, no doubt from some other Amazing Plasma Mage. 

I felt a little bit bad for the creature, and briefly considered helping it, but decided to just walk out of the elevator. It did try to kill me after all. However, the moment I walked away from the elevator, the leech rolled itself up against the left corner in a way similar to a coil before launching directly at my face, snapping its jaws intensely I kicked the leech and fired a lightning bolt at the creature, with full power, resulting in not only for the elevator to explode, briefly filling the room with light as flaming chunks of metal fell out of the inferno that once was the magical elevator, clattering to the ground. I collapsed into a nearby chair, almost toppling it, my hands were fidgeting and I could faintly hear the snaps and cracks of lightning coming out of my fingertips.

I grabbed a fire extinguisher off of the wall and just when I was about to suppress the fire, Who else but the leech to jump out of the flames like a bat out of hell, gnashing its teeth, and seeping with even more white liquid form its teeth and blue liquid from its body. The leech crept into the nozzle with a squelch. I knew I had to get rid of this strange creature. I ran out the building and noticed a Strangely long squiggle beneath the sand 30 or so feet away from a struggling to what could only be described as enchanting an ice cube with fire. Even though someone else in Lazarus could've taken on the creature since they'd be more experienced. I just couldn't risk her dying and from my fault no less, as well as the chance of getting rid of the leech.  I could hear and feel the leech slamming against the can, creating dents that seemed to increase in size over time. I gulped. it was only a matter of time before the leech broke through. 

So with a shout to startle the girl and get her as far away as possible from the cobra, as well as get it's, attention, I charged. The girl turned to me and accidentally caught sight of the cobra which was   Now only a foot away from her. adrenaline coursing through my veins like a rapid, and when I gained enough momentum, I leaped into the air and drove the extinguisher directly down the beast’s throat. The girl turned around and upon, looking at the creature, instantly let out a shrill scream and jumped onto the top of a nearby palm tree. The cobra ran into the building, screaming hysterically. The cobra smashed itself into the ground, creating small vibrations, for a minute before noticed it's skin was beginning to crack and sizzle, and it exploded, sending foam, chunks of meat that smelled so musky, I was nearly overwhelmed, and bits of metal crunching into the sand. “Thanks!” The girl hollered, her voice slowly fading away as she quickly sprinted into the building. I noticed she had left her weird enchanted ice cube thing. ”Get over here!” I heard a rugged voice call from further down the hill of the beach. I 

I lied there in my room on the ship and pondered my situation. In the last 48 hours, I had been attacked by a teleporting Snidely, worked with that same Snidely to kill a giant squid, been blackmailed to do a mission before my training was even done. Did I begin to ponder how the hell  I even got into my situation? I heard the door unlock and stood up from my bed.  The door swung open and in stepped Horace, wearing a blue trench coat and some sandals. “How’d you get in here?” I asked in confusion. Horace grinned and pointed at the keyhole which held a key in it which wasn’t there before. 

 “Conjuring  mages are nothing to scoff at the youngster.” Horace began, ”I merely looked at the keyhole and imagined a key that fits it and voila it appeared! Mind mages truly are amazing” I rolled my eyes at that last sentence. How arrogant could this guy get?“Why are you here?” I asked Horace.  He grinned and stepped to the side, revealing. a brown backpack lying on the ground. “Open it,” He said, enthusiastically, beckoning me with his hands. I stepped off of the bed and felt the cold flooring beneath my feet. I walked over to the backpack and unzipped it, expecting to see something cool. What I saw instead was some useless junk. There was a small bag full of green pebbles,  another bag with yellow pebbles, a mustard packet, two single pills with the words: “Falling” engraved on them inside a glass capsule, and two hairbrushes connected together via rubber band at their handles. “What’s all this for?” I asked Horace, raising my head from the backpack to look at him. 

 Horace gave me a look like I just said the dumbest thing ever and rolled his eyes before replying. “Isn’t it obvious kid? They’re gadgets. Made by my team.” He said, ”For example....” Horace trailed off as he looked over everything in the bag before finally picking up the bag of green pebbles and waving them at me a bit before speaking again.“Now, these, for example, are not your ordinary pebbles but are instead mind wiping pebbles. You simply throw them at the ground hard enough that they shatter. The second they do they eliminate everyone in about a five feet radius’s memory of the previous 7 hours.” “Why 7 hours?” I asked, perplexed. Horace shrugged. “I don’t know. Time mages find it rather difficult to imbue their power into objects. I will say however that if a person is intuitive enough they will be able to look through the illusion, but since 7 is a lucky number, and as such on rare occasions it will wipe a person mind of everything in their life, it could technically kill ghost since they would forget the reason for why they are angry enough to still be on earth.  will be permanent and would even be able to fool those who naturally wouldn’t be fooled.”

Horace raised the packet of yellow pebbles to me before continuing. ”These bad boys are illusion pebbles and they are rather simple to use, just whisper what you want an individual to see and throw them at the intended target, however, you must be wary of a possible outcome that really isn’t in your favor: If the target is smart enough they can figure out the illusion..” Horace dropped the packets and moved on to the two brushes and swiftly separated them. I noticed that one brush had the word ”P” engraved on the handle, whilst another had the word ”S” engraved on it. ”These are mind brushes” Horace began, ” The way they work is quite simple. You brush your hair and your thoughts are immediately sent to the other hairbrush, which is used by the other person, will essentially act as a communication device except it can't be traced.” Horace gave an underhand throw of the hairbrush marked ”S” to me and I barely caught it.

Horace chuckled before giving an overhand throw off the other hairbrush to Snidely, who easily caught it with one hand. He didn't even look at it, too far into his book to notice and he still caught it. Horace let out a guttural laugh before taking out the pills marked ”falling” ”these are cursed Nyquil  pills that save the user from taking fall damage for a few minutes at the cost of making them blind for a few hours.” How did you make those?” I asked. ”It was hex created by my group. It took quite a while for the pills to develop and in the end, we managed to make two successful pills.” ”Well, I suppose now that you all know of the equipment for the mission I’ll give you papers about who you are supposed to be,” Horace said, unzipping the backpack and raising his left hand to me. I began wondering whether or not he wanted me to give him a handshake when a stack of papers appeared in his hands, shocking me briefly before I remembered that he was a conjuring mage and composed myself.

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Horace handed me the stack before giddily walking over to the stern of the boat. Out of the corner of my eye,  I noticed Snidely gag at his book and drop it, where it plopped onto the ground. I swerved around to each him, almost dropping my papers in the process, and asked what freaked him out. ”I just read about wood elves.” he replied, ”They strangle people to death with flutes that can control trees and take the tongue of their already killed  enemies as a trophy and brutalize them beyond human comprehension.” Snidely raised the book to me and there was a spread page visual showing something absolutely horrifying: a mostly human corpse in the middle of a dense forest. I say mostly human due to the fact that it was embedded in such a way into the ground, that parts of it appeared to actually become parts of nature. The skin of the victim appeared coated in algae and small insects.

There were tree roots where the fingers should've been that sunk into the ground and appeared to stretch underground out of frame. and a white rose partly soaked in dried blood growing out of the corpse’s left eye. and the hair appeared to have been replaced with blades of grass. The only reason I could really tell the corpse was human was due to the clothes and the general body outline. The head appeared to be decapitated and partly buried inside the floor a few inches away from the body. Strangely there was very little blood on the corpse outside of the blood on the rose. Even with the fact that there was little blood and the corpse was mostly covered with foliage, I still was horrified of the image because of one simple reason: the corpse was from a child, and although the gender was difficult to tell, it was most definitely a child. it's face raised to the sky and the jaw appeared to have been ripped out post mortem. 

 It looked like something had violently forced its way inside while the child’s mouth was closed. I swore in shock and held onto the nearby coffee table for support, as Snidley plopped the book onto the said coffee table, before lying down onto the couch and going to sleep. His face was pale as snow, and even though his eyes were closed, I could see his eyes under his eyelids frantically dart around. I assumed he was having a nightmare and decided to grab a blanket and give it to him. Unfortunately for Snidely, at the last minute, I felt the urge to pee mushroom inside me like an unstable nuclear reactor, just begging to go off. 

 I sprinted into the bathroom, still clinging on to the blanket due to the sudden urge of pee distracting me. The instant I turned to the toilet I immediately noticed that the toilet was chained shut, no doubt by Snidely, in an attempt to pull a prank on me. I couldn't believe it. I had saved his life and kicked his ass and get he still was being a dickhead. The air was filled with intense cracks as a ball of lightning spontaneously erupted from my palm at the chain, before diminishing into the keyhole. And just as quickly as the lightning shrank, it widened. The crackling grew in intensity as I visualized the ball swelling and shattering the lock.

  And just as quickly as the thought entered my mind, it had actually happened. The ball widened with pressure and, with a loud bang, exploded the lock, as well as embed components of it into the glass behind me. I happily tore off the chain and tried to flip up the seat, only to see that it appeared glued shut. I cursed and thinking quickly, slid open the window, filling my nostrils with the scent of salt from the vast ocean, as I put my left leg through the window. To say the feeling of my crotch rubbing into the windowpane was painful would be a lie. But I endured the agony and unzipped my pants and began to pee.

  After five minutes, my pleasure ended and I noticed a mermaid in lin a looking at me with pure disgust. Her eyes glowed like a star, and her teeth were curved like scimitars. ”This little bugger here says it wants you to lead it to Sin I suggest you do so and leave here immediately before I kill you for pissing in my domain!” snapped the mermaid, throwing something at my face, I yelped and ducked, barely missing the object as it whizzed past my head. I could feel a slimy substance stick tufts of my hair together. I grabbed at it and realized that it felt very sticky, kind of like glue. Kind of like-“The Leech” I mumbled in realization, turning to the door. My assumption was right, sticking to the door and giving animalistic shrieks, was the leech I thought I had killed not that long ago. I audibly groaned, Of all the people to deal with a magical leech tracking them down why would it have to be me? I quickly grabbed the leech and throw it into the water a second time into the water, only to see the mermaid raise her hands to me and fire two jets of water that weaved with one another. Knowing what was to come, I heaved my body to the toilet seat, just in time to recognize the water blast through the window and tear the door to splinters

 ”Would you kindly turn up the speed Horace?” I yelled, my voice echoing across the waves. ”Yep!” Horace hollered back, sounding like he was eating sunflower seeds. Just as Horace responded, I heard the hum of the motor get louder and felt myself fly against the wall. My vision briefly blurred. I could hear and see the water rushing against the side of the boat. The humming of the motor grew even louder now, and I could hear wind beating against the roof of the boat. I struggled to my feet, quickly closed the window,  and staggered out the door. Snidely had fallen out of the couch and had apparently smashed into the backpack. And interestingly enough, he was still sleeping. ”Sorry you had to deal with that mermaid woman.” Horace yelled from the other side of the boat, ”Usually they only attack people when someone urinates or pollutes in their domain. perhaps I can investigate this incident sometime in the future, but for now, I guess you should browse your file until we arrive.” 

 I nodded and reclined on the couch and began my annoying task, I say annoying because every time I finished reading a line of text, it would wither into nothing. Obviously that was meant to make it impossible for the paper to be trailed, but it was still annoying when the paper mentioned something that previously happened and I would look to see what it was referencing only for the text to have dissipated. Still, by the time I finished reading my alibi, not only did we arrive in the docks, but I knew everything about Luke Parker. Snidely slowly woke up, and after blinking a few times and realizing what was happening, picked up his book and dog eared the page he was on. Horace slowly waddled into view, holding a jar full of coins.

”Do I need directions to ”Angel Hands?” Snidely asked. Horace nodded. ”So will you give me a map or something” ”We're both doing this mission” I acknowledged, ”Your not the only agent here.” ”Maybe, but I am the only agent of the two of us who is a natural at magic.” Snidely shot back, ”You can only make constructs” Snidely strutted off the boat and onto the pier, giving me two middle fingers. “Hey hey come back here!” Horace yelled, a service cane materializing in his left hand. Snidely ignored the comment and continued walking. Horace grit his teeth and in one singular motion wrapped the handle around Snidely’s leg and yanking hard to make him fall before repositioning the handle to his neck and pulling again, sending snidely sprawling across the ugly carpet and bumping into the wall. The entire event was so quick if I blinked, it would’ve looked like one moment Snidely was walking on the pier, and the next was up against the wall.  

Snidely let out a solemn groan as he staggered to his feet, rubbing the back of his head. “What the hell do you want?” He asked, furrowing his brow. “Both of you recruits were assigned to do this mission-“ “Against our will” Me and Snidely reminded Horace in perfect unison. Almost immediately after finishing our sentence, I and Snidely were swiftly Whacked by Horace, resulting in two loud cracks followed by groans emanating from the boat. Pain swelled in my chest and I laid against the wall for support. Snidely did the same thing. “Stop interrupting me ya varmints” Horace grumbled before continuing. “Now, as I was saying, Though you two currently despise each other, by the end of it, if both of you survive, you will have grown a bond so powerful that you will be able to function like one single organism, in perfect cohesion with one another.

 “You will become blood brothers!” Horace shouted, clenching the cane with such pressure I could it crack and groan. Immediately after he shouted, I felt taken over by unrivaled amazement. Pure and utter amazement that Horace genuinely believed me and Snidely could bond over the mission. I couldn’t help but let out a slight smirk at that. Snidely didn’t smirk and quickly teleported to the door and slammed it shut with a clank. Horace eyed Snidely with a look of pure bewilderment on his face. “Sorry I just thought that an agent as skilled as you would’ve known it’s not a good idea to talk about things like that while leaving the door opened. It’s okay though. Not everyone can be as smart as me.” Snidely boasted. Horace chuckled and slowly clapped. This time, Snidely was the one with a look of pure bewilderment. “You recruits never cease to amaze me with your stupendous stupidity,” Horace said.

“If you had done any research at all about me you would’ve known that one of my first projects with my team, was putting an illusion on all the directors of the  NSA, FBI, and CIA agent into not being able to hear a damn thing inside this boat, alongside all the vehicles at Lazarus, unless they enter. “You didn’t mention the police” Snidely noted. “That’s because the police already have a department for magic. And while corruption  and moles are indeed an option, the magical departments tend to be extremely well versed in the act of catching moles and eradicating corruption, especially the NYPD magical  department  here since it’s under control by a former Lazarus Agent By the name of Sherrif Dawson.”  Horace strolled over to the door and opened it. walked out of the boat,  the instant both of our feet touched the pier, I could hear the sound of the motor gurgling water shortly before getting slammed into the ground, by a wave of water. I groggily got to the ground to see the boat speeding into the distance.

”Dick!” Snidely coughed, rolling onto his back and coughing water. I noticed that his glasses were cracked as he rose to his feet. I groggily stood up and scanned the area. I could see that at the end of the pier was a relatively empty street. And with my enhanced vision, I could look all the way down the street where there was a Spiral Skyscraper and I could see a bus stop next to a hill. Perhaps that would be a good step towards finding Angel Hands. ”Follow me,” I said, slowly walking off the pier. ”Where are you going?” Snidely asked. ”I saw a bus stop,” I said, Snidely followed my gaze. “I don’t see anything.” He said, squinting, “Your off your rocker Luke” I ignored the comment and continued walking, I knew that Snidely would follow me, and sure enough, when I was at the crosswalk after walking for almost an hour and was across from the Bus stop, I heard the pittering and pattering of Snidely’s wet feet as he ran over to me.

“You're an ass Luke,” He said through pained breaths. Suddenly we both heard the blare of a cop car coming from the direction of the hill and turned to see what was going on, just in time to see a Bus speed down the hill, sparking flying from its wheels, being closely followed by a white Bricklin with a police headlight firmly planted on its roof. The moment I saw the bus speed down the hill I managed to get a glimpse inside and saw the driver of the bus lying face down onto the wheel, a dagger sticking out of his back! And although Snidely did not have the enhanced vision that I did, judging from the sheer horror on his face that was the same as the picture on the boat, it was clear he knew that the driver was dead.  

I was about to try and use my magic to stop the bus, only for Snidely to clench my wrist, and raise my hand to a  camera positioned on the stoplight. I gritted my teeth. ”Great now we have to somehow save these people without using our powers.” I muttered. ”And we really only have a short amount of time before that bus crashes into the water!.” Snidely gasped. That settled it. We had to get working and fast.