Jun jumped backward and dove to the side just in time to avoid the wave of papers. They flew past him and crashed into the wall, leaving a large crack, before they returned to the box. Jun jumped up and in a flash, his chain shot out towards Nedd. The lid of a second box on top of the stack popped off as papers combined with the already opened box to create a barrier. The chain bounced off the wall of papers and up into the ceiling. It crashed through a a different tile, on the other side of the barricade and headed right towards Nedd. Several papers immediately formed a packet and flew in front of Nedd, which blocked the chain’s impact. Jun retracted the chain and moved back to create more distance. A neon green reticle appeared over his left eye.
“I believe you promised to kick the flannel right off of me. So far I grade your efforts an F.”
“You look like an idiot.” Jun shot back. Now that he stood further in what was left of the waning daylight, Jun noticed Nedd wore a beige, and weathered paper rolled into a cone on top of his head.
“The small mind is more concerned with appearance than results.” The papers floated out of their boxes and swirled around Nedd until they formed what looked like a giant fist. “Allow me to teach you the painful difference.”
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Todd gulped as he stared at Gunther and the students a mere few feet away. His eyes were wide and he felt frozen as his mind tried to come up with a way of escape. He quickly glanced around; Todd found himself near the middle of the hallway than the end, which meant any attempt to flee would involve a straight up foot race with nowhere to turn off.
The closest door which led outside was on the other side of six people who had little inclination to let Todd go his merry way. The five students were in their robes and looked as confused to see Todd as he was to see them. Based on the small amount of classrooms, Todd realized he was in the hallway where most of the school clubs met; which meant the doors were more than likely locked since club activities didn’t officially start until Monday. The situation looked ever more dire by the second.
“Queen Cindy?” Todd recognized the muffled voice coming from his jeans pocket as one of the relegated from the recon team. “We see something odd on the cameras. Off to investigate. No sighting of target.” Todd looked down as he patted his pockets to find his phone. He blinked, then slowly he lifted his head.
“I couldn’t interest any of you in a free demonstration of the wonder and delight that is sleight of hand magic could I?”
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The metal doors nearly flew off their hinges as Jun flew out of the school. He landed on the grass with a hard thud and stared at the sky; with the arrival of dusk, the clouds had turned a dark violet and swirled in alternating rotations. Jun got to his feet as Nedd slowly walked outside. All four boxes on top of the pallet were opened as papers orbited around him.
“I have to admit, this physical type of power is intoxicating.” Nedd said.
“I’m sorry, I just can’t take you seriously with that ridiculous thing on your head.” Jun said. Nedd chuckled.
“It must be difficult to a life where you’re unable to grasp larger concepts. As silly as it looks, this cone, this cap of duncery is impenetrable protection. Its status as a particularity potent example idiocy repels the greedy paws of Canis. Like wrapping gold in poop.”
“Ew.”
“Combine that with these.” Nedd swept his hand over the boxes. “And my power is unrivaled. Even I was surprised that my system could produce such...terrible grades, but thanks to those relegated dumbos, I’ve more than enough ammunition for Canis. And what’s most ironic? It’s augmented by the base power I received from Canis. He’ll have a...paw in his own undoing.”
“You really overestimate yourself.” Jun replied.
“I’ve got my own magic equation, my own source of power, I’m basically the anti-Canis. He feeds on the brightest, I use the dumbest.”
“You talk a lot about Canis, it’s a shame you won’ get past me.” Jun said. He blinked and the reticule over his eye disappeared. He reached into his jacket sleeve and pulled out one of the bean bags from earlier. With an effortless flick of his wrist, Jun sent it sailing at Nedd. Once again the papers moved to block the attack, but as they did, Jun swiftly launched two more; one headed towards his head and the other his stomach. The papers moved to shield him entirely, but the quickness of Jun’s attack forced them to block his head first and nearly let the second hit Nedd’s stomach.
“No matter what you try,” Nedd tapped the side of his head, “my mind is faster.” Jun stared at him, wordless, as a student ran over.
“Mr. Scofield...” the girl said, slowly.
“What?” Nedd barked.
“Two things, actually. First, the students have turned...rowdy, waiting for the exam. Second, and I’ll just rip this band aid off, apparently there was a tiny issue, which lead to the escape-”
“Perfect!” Nedd shouted, his arms spread out. “It sounds like the students are ready. Drag this one with you.” He pointed at Jun. “I want him to have a front row seat for the final lesson.”
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Todd closed his eyes and sighed. “Again, I cannot tell you how the trick is done.”
“Okay, wait.” One of the students said. “What if we guess it and you just scratch your ear if it’s right. That way you’re not technically telling us.”
“Do it again.” Gunther demanded. Todd pinched the bridge of his nose. This was the fourth or fifth time the cycle repeated itself. What was a hail mary suggestion, which was supposed to somehow turn into a quick distraction, managed to transform into a farcical nightmare. Todd began to wish that they hadn’t bit on his offer and just captured him instead.
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“Alright, just do it one more time, and we’ll vote on how it’s done. Now if we’re right, do not respond, but if we’re wrong, also don’t respond, but-”
“Augh! I just want to see the trick again!” Gunther roared. Todd took a step back as he thrashed wildly in his impatience.
“We need to establish how we’ll find out how it’s done!” One of the students yelled back. While the group rushed him, and were thrown aside, Todd took the moment to flee.
He ran around the corner and once his mind recognized where he was in the school, Todd’s instincts once again took over. It led him to follow the rest of the route of original plan from the morning; better than trying to run and decide which way to go.
Back in the distance, Todd could still hear the roars from Gunther as he rounded another corner. This time Todd stopped in his tracks, a broken cage sat empty in the middle of the hallway. Todd looked around then slowly moved closer.
“Are these bite marks?” Todd whispered as he investigated the bars. Next to the cage was a small figurine, that seemed vaguely familiar, but Todd couldn’t quite remember where from. He scooped it up and noticed a door nearby slightly ajar.
He took a step towards it, and tried to peer in the dark room. “Is anyone even attempting to follow the plan? Anyone at all? Nope. Okay, I’ll do it myself.” Cindy’s voice came through and forced Todd to throw caution to the wind as the sound of heavy footsteps drew nearer.
Todd stayed near the door, not even bothering to look for a light switch as he held his breath and kept watch for Gunther. A hand on his should caused Todd to jump and scream. He covered his mouth and spun around. Viktor smiled wide in the darkness.
“Todd! You made it!” he said. Todd shushed him.
“What are you doing here? What happened back....are you okay? Like okay, okay?” Todd whispered.
“It’s wild. I was out of my mind there. And then I came to in a cage, then some odd guy in a suit and slicked back hair and sunglasses brought the cage over here and helped me escape.” Viktor said. Todd frowned. The person in Viktor’s description sounded oddly like the man he’d seen the first day of school, but Todd thought he was in league with Nedd.
“Well how are you back to normal?” Todd asked.
“Actually it-ahhh!” Viktor screamed as Gunther’s angry face appeared in the cracked doorway. He roared as Todd shut the door and locked it. Todd’s actions did little good as Gunther knocked the door back off its hinges with a strong head butt. With some light from the hallway pouring inside, Todd saw they were in the yearbook club room.
Gunther breathed heavily, his head still lowered as he stomped into the room. “Do the trick again!” He yelled. Before Todd could work out a plan, Viktor threw a chair at Gunther. It hit Gunther in the head and broke without so much as a stagger from Gunther. Todd looked at Viktor, who shrugged. Gunther charged, head first at Viktor, who moved out of the way, and crashed into a table with computers.
Gunther immediately popped up and threw a table at the boys. They barely dove out of the way. Viktor stood up and lunged at Gunther and Todd noticed a distinct amount of hair on the boys arm. Gunther and Viktor grappled for a bit until Gunther tossed Viktor into a nearby bookshelf. Gunther turned to Todd, eyes full of rage and exploded towards him.
Todd did what he could do to run and try to keep distance, but the room wasn’t that large, and was empty. It was only the saving grace of tripping over a cord that caused Todd to fall out of the way in time to avoid Gunther’s attacked. He went straight into the wall and through it until Todd heard a loud smack, then a heavy fall.
Todd waited, then carefully walked towards the Gunther sized hole in the wall. What appeared to be a normal wall, was just dry wall, and the big oaf had driven right through to the other side. Once he’d entered the walled off section, his head collided with the actual concrete wall. It left quite the crack on the wall, but also left Gunther unconscious.
The lights came on in the room as Todd peered into the area behind the wall. Nearby, there was a piece of rolled up paper on the ground. Todd picked it up.
“Would you look at that?” Viktor said as he appeared over Todd’s shoulder, wincing as he did.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Todd said.
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“Pencil’s up!” Nedd shouted from the center of the football field. In the stands, all the seating had been converted, ad hoc, into desks. The moderate amount of seating was jam packed with students from all over the school. “Remember bonus points to the highest grade which finishes first, and it’s the most important and impactful thing you’ll ever do in your academic career. So have fun!” Nedd smiled as he turned to Jun. “Sometimes you gotta sprinkle on a little extra seasoning. Looks like it worked.” He pointed towards the sky.
The clouds, now a more ominous shade of violet, swirled faster; back and forth they went, never quite forming a funnel but a hole had started to form. Jun stared ahead, bound in jump ropes as Nedd threw his head back and laughed as he reveled in his own mischief. The cone shaped, paper hat on his head nearly fell off and Nedd almost tripped over himself to grab it. He glanced around and composed himself.
Four students from the lowest percentile were needed to literally drag Jun’s body over to the field. They, along with the rest of their group, watch from the literal sidelines as everyone else started the test.
“Stay as defiant as you wish, there’s no stalling for time. Canis won’t save you.” Nedd narrowed his eyes as Jun continued to silently look past him. He looked around then frowned. “No bravado? Doesn’t matter. Students!” The crazed test takers struggled, but ultimately looked up from their make-shift desks. “As an added treat, allow me to demonstrate what happens to failures.” Nedd held his arms out and a slew of papers flew into the air. They swirled around until a large, dense cube was formed. “Jun...I never bothered to learn your last name. Once one of my top students, you have been dropped from my class.” Nedd dropped his arms and the floating cube immediately fell to the ground, on top of Jun.
It fell with such impact that the cube sank into the ground a fair bit. Please with himself, Nedd looked up as the hole created by parted clouds filled with an unnatural light. “It’s time.” he whispered. “Students-”
“Cindy Beaumont!” Cindy yelled as she and the rest of the relegated students rushed the field from the other entrance.
“What the?” Nedd asked. He raised his arm to launch the cube at them, but it refused to move. His eyes widened as he noticed the yellow glow around the cube. “You, idiots.” Nedd shouted at the lowest percentile students. “I’ll let you all take the the test if you keep the bray hordes away from my person.” The students looked at each other. Nedd sighed. “That means stop them!” He pointed at Cindy’s rapidly approaching group. The students on the sidelines nodded and ran towards them.
When Nedd turned back the cube was finally in the air, but had flown towards the other side of the field. “Impossible!” Nedd screamed. He quickly looked up at the sky. “Canis? Wait...” Nedd inhaled, his nose wrinkled. “Of course...you fool, I won’t be stopped by my own failed experiment!” His eyes caught the all too familiar yellow glow in the distance and Nedd extended his arm. Papers flew out of the boxes and formed a pair of hands as they sped towards Viktor.
The cube immediately reversed course and launched into the air, as if by catapult, towards Nedd. The paper hands flew around it before crashing down on Viktor. Nedd smiled as he retracted they floated back with the bounty. He looked up and dispersed the falling cube with a simple wave of his hand, but the smile immediately dropped from his mouth. In the midst of the papers was Todd Stewart, as he fell towards Nedd.
“Ahhhhh!” He screamed as his arms flailed and legs kicked out from sheer panic.
“Get the stupid looking hat!” Jun’s voice came over the PA system. Time seemed to move in slow motion as Nedd looked to where the cube had crushed Jun earlier, and saw nothing in the indentation. He cast his eyes up to the announcers both where Jun held something a loft and near the microphone, then he turned back towards Todd just as the boy fell on top of him and they both went to the ground.
Nedd elbowed Todd hard in the ribs as he rolled over, then scrambled to his feet just as the paper hands dropped Viktor to the ground and broke their shape. Nedd instinctively felt for, then adjusted the paper cone on his head.
“It seems once again you’ve failed.” he said as he stared at Viktor. “You’ve all failed, and now you’re flunked.” He stretched his arm out to form a giant boulder from the nearby papers, but they remained motionless. Nedd looked at his hands and tilted his head. “How in the...” When the wind picked up and caused the cone to jostle, Nedd reached up to grab it and his eyes went wide. Slowly Nedd took the hat off and lowered it: the dunce cap had been replaced with simple lined notebook paper. He turned towards Todd, who had just stood up, and snarled. Todd put the actual cap behind his back.
“Magician never reveals...” he chuckled nervously. Nedd let out a loud and horrible howl. Todd winced and even the students in the seats looked up. Thunder roared as the violet clouds stopped moving and a pair of familiar, evil eyes peered through the hole in the middle of the formation.
“You absolute idiots!” Nedd snarled. “He’s here!”