Sofya drove Tom, in his haggard disguise, on an uncomfortably silent ride to the abandoned warehouse. She kept her eyes on the road and her senses on high alert. Tom, continuing to check out his disgusting, elderly face, kept looking at it in the rear view mirror, fidgeting in his seat while he did so. After a certain point, Sofya couldn’t take it anymore.
“Stop doing that!” she snapped. “I’m trying to drive here and you’re distracting me!”
“Listen bitch” Tom replied in a deeper and gravely voice. “You’re not the one with the haggard, ugly appearance right now.”
“If you don’t stop doing that, then I’ll make it permanent! Now knock it off! I’m trying to concentrate!”
Sighing, Tom looked to the side view mirror and continued to stare at his changed appearance. Sofya thought to comment on this, but decided to keep her mouth shut. She didn’t have to stew in her agitation for long, before she spotted the road that led to the warehouse off in the distance.
“There it is” she muttered quietly to herself, as she drove up the road to take a look at the property.
On the old, broken road, the car struggled to get through the muddy and pothole filled terrain, before they approached the abandoned warehouse off in the distance. When they arrived, Sofy was unimpressed. It didn’t strike her as anything special. The sign on top, the former “Home Paper Good Co.”, was falling off from the hinges. Only half of the faded letters still stood. The property’s windows managed to stay in tact, to her surprise. The frame was covered in mold and mildew from decades of neglect.
“Not the safest place for us to be going” Sofya thought to herself, as she eyed the property from inside of the car. “However, it’s a big space that’s not too far away, so beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.”
In that moment, an eerie feeling washed over her, as she opened the door of the car, before she got out to inspect the warehouse more carefully.
“Wait here” she said to Tom. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Tom groaned in reply, as he went back to looking at his putrid face in the rear view mirror. Sofya approached the property and did an initial scan with her magic.
“No signs of any other magical beings ever making their presence here” Sofya noted to herself, as she began to lay out a series of spells and traps.
In that moment, a rather morbid thought hit her, as she continued to work her magic.
“This is really going to be the place where we make our final stand. Either we get out alive or they do.”
Sofya finished working her magic, before she walked back to the car. Inside, Tom continued to stare at his face in the rear view mirror, as Sofya motioned him to stop. Making a U turn, Sofya drove off of the property, to head to their next destination; the mayor’s house.
Several miles away, Chris was driving Buddy and Michael in Freddy's car. He struggled with his larger gorilla hands and hairier gorilla arms to steer the wheel, while being pursued by two masked men in an unmarked vehicle. They noticed them as soon as they turned up the block in their neighborhood.
“They’ve been following us for miles now” Michael said nervously, as he looked in the rear view mirror. “What are they doing?”
“I have no idea” Chris replied, as he continued to drive.
“Man” Freddy thought to himself, as Buddy whimpered on the floor in the back of his car. “I wish Sofya hadn’t turned off that spell. I’d really like to be able to communicate with Michael and Chris right about now.”
For quite a few miles down the road, the masked men in the unmarked vehicle were continuing to follow Freddy’s car.
“Where are they going?” one of the masked men asked, as he looked at them with his binoculars.
“I have no idea” the masked man driving responded.
“They seem to be leading us on a wild goose chase. Do you think we should call the mayor, to bring more people over to help us pin them down?”
“Don’t bother. We can take care of them ourselves.”
“You sure? Because the other guys went missing, even though their car was still parked out in front of the commie’s house. I really think we should call for reinforcements.”
“Let me take care of this.”
The masked man started to speed up, as they approached a windy road.
“Uh oh” Michael said aloud, as the car behind them began to speed up in their direction. “Looks like they are trying to make impact.”
“I hate speeding on these roads” Chris replied, as he began to put a heaver foot, one that was darker and larger than his human one, on the pedal.
Chris began to weave carefully over the dangerous roads, mindful of the sharp turns in front of them. The car behind them made these turns with ease, before they continued to make gains on their target.
“Shit” Freddy thought to himself, as Buddy whimpered loudly, while he looked out the back window.
“They’re gaining on us” Michael said nervously. “Chris, step on the gas.”
“I’m trying” Chris replied with an irritated tone in his voice “but I don’t want to get us killed. It's hard to control the speed with these gorilla feet and legs that Sofya gave me.”
In a split second, the car with the masked men dinged the back of Freddy’s car.
“Fuck!” Chris exclaimed, as he sped up down the road.
Approaching a sharp turn, Chris struggled to make it, nearly hitting the rail, before he was successful at avoiding it. The car behind them also had a great deal of difficulty making this turn. Chris continued to slowly accelerate his speed, as the car behind them did so as well. The roads were dangerous in and of themselves, with short turns and steep hills over the rails. However, in the dark, at such high speeds and with his stronger limbs that were hard to control, the chase was becoming perilous.
“Is there some safer place we can go to lose them?” Michael asked, as he gripped onto the bar of the passenger door.
“Not for another ten or fifteen miles” Chris replied, as he struggled to keep the car behind them off of their tail.
“Why hasn’t Sofya called yet?”
“I’m sure she’s not ready for us.”
“Well, I wish she’d hurry up. That way, we can head over to the warehouse and get this shit over with.”
Chris freaked out, as he hadn’t spotted the next sharp turn, until a split second before he needed to make it.
“Shit!” he exclaimed, as he aggressively turned the steering wheel, causing the car to sharply swerve out of the way.
Freddy’s car left tire marks on the road, which were not visible to them in the dark. Behind them, the car carrying the masked men did not spot the sharp turn in time to avert their fate.
“Look out!” the masked man with binoculars yelled, as they crashed into the rail.
The car they were driving flipped over, taking a long tumble down to the bottom of the hill. The masked men bumped their heads, causing them to get concussions in that moment. That would only be the least of their problems as, when the car finally got to the bottom, it crashed into a tree; crushing the masked men to their gory, bloody deaths.
“Holy shit!” Michael exclaimed, as he had been watching the scene unfold in the distance from the rear view mirror. “Chris! Stop the car!”
Chris aggressively slammed on the breaks, caused the car to jerk suddenly. Buddy flew up into the seat, before Michael protected him from flying out the window. Chris butted into the wheel, seeing a tender bit of pain form in his chest.
“Ow” Chris groaned.
“Are you two ok?” Michael asked.
Buddy nodded his head, as Chris took off his seatbelt.
“What the fuck, Michael?” Chris asked, as he tenderly rubbed his ribcage from the top of his leotard.
“Didn’t you see that?”
“See what, Michael? In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been busy driving here. I’ve been trying to save yours and Freddy’s lives from these mad men who almost pushed us off a cliff just now.”
“They crashed into the rail and rolled down the hill.”
“Seriously?”
Chris put his seatbelt back on and made a carefully executed K turn. Slowly rolling down the road, Chris saw the broken rail with his high beams flashing towards it.
“Wow” he noted, as he stopped the car to survey the damage. “You weren’t kidding.”
“Of course I wasn’t kidding!” Michael exclaimed.
Buddy whimpered, as he rubbed his head into Michael’s neck.
“Shh. Calm down, Michael.”
Michael tried to look down the hill, but the darkness made it hard for him to see. Chris got out of the car and turned on a flashlight from his communication device. Pointing it down the hill, he could make out the crushed car at the bottom of the hill from a distance.
“Looks like the car is completely totaled” he noted to himself, before he got back into the car.
“Well?” Michael asked, as Chris buckled up and drove off again.
“Car looks totaled. I think it’s the end of them.”
“Don’t you think you should go down there and check? If they are still alive, they might call the mayor and send more of his goon squad to go after us.”
“I think it’s best to make ourselves scarce from the scene of the accident. Let’s keep going until Sofya gives us the signal to head over to the warehouse.”
Michael quietly gulped, before he nodded in agreement. Buddy went back down to the floor of the car, as Chris drove down the windy road in the darkness of night. Up in the sky, Michael noticed an eery sight taking place.
“Chris?”
“What is it, Michael?”
“Take a look at the sky for a second?”
Chris groaned, before he briefly darted his eyes up to the sky. What he saw confused him, but didn’t immediately alarm him. Before this point in time, the sky was completely clear. However, in that moment, a gathering of gray clouds formed in the sky, soon covering it up in its entirety.
“That’s odd.”
“I wonder if that’s the doing of the wizard.”
In that moment, a fog began to appear on the road. Wanting to be careful, Chris slowed down his speed and became even more alert in his driving. On the drive over from the warehouse, Sofya and Tom noticed the same development occur in the sky.
“That’s odd” Tom said in his gravely voice. “I don’t remember clouds forming like that when I took Earth science in middle school.”
“It’s one of two things” Sofya replied, as she turned on the high beams and remained focused on her driving. “It’s either the work of my father or someone else from the magical world. I have a bad feeling that my father didn’t just break himself out of that prison. I bet you he broke out everyone else when he escaped.”
Tom gulped, worrying about what this possibility could mean for them.
“You don’t think he has an army of magic guys on his side now, do you?”
“It’s certainly possible, though, knowing my father, he was always a loner. Still, if he does have other wizards and witches working with him, then I’m starting to become convinced that the five of us alone are not going to be able to stop him. We just better hope that his insistence on doing things his own way will apply to this battle.”
Though it was true that the wizard, Sofya’s father, hadn’t summoned other magical beings to Earth to assist him in his mission, that didn’t mean he was going to be fighting them all on his own. The mayor had freaked out at being flown from his office to his house on the back of the wizard. He had been driven back home from work and he had been flown in a flying car. He had never had an experience quite like this before; one that combined both of these things.
“Never again” the mayor thought to himself, as he freaked out at seeing the town below him from the sky.
The wizard remained stone faced, as he levitated in the direction of the mayor's house. When the wizard dropped the mayor off on the front steps of his house, he gave him a set of instructions.
“Have your men call up anyone you can get at your disposal right now. The police, assassins, the national guard. Any and all people ready to fight. My daughter, though she isn’t nearly as powerful as I am, is no amateur. Now that she’s older, she may have been able to tap into her magical abilities. We’re going to need all the men you can get, just to weaken them enough for us to go in for the kill.”
“Why don’t you just kill them right on the spot?!” the mayor asked with an irritated tone in his voice.
“I may not be able to. We have to weaken them first, so that way, we don’t have any trouble finishing them off.”
“I’ve already sacrificed many of our town’s fine officers in trying to capture this renegade communist! Why should I sacrifice any more?!”
“Their sacrifices will not be in vein, so long as you follow my instructions.”
“I’m having Marley working on this already, but I think this is a really bad idea! Also, why are you insisting on flying off right now?! Why are you leaving me at home all by myself?!”
“I’m baiting them. If they think you’re exposed, then they will try to come after you. That’s what I want them to do.”
“What makes you think I want that, though?””
“Just stay here and do as you’re told.”
“Why?!”
The wizard was getting increasingly agitated, but refused to show it in his facial expression.
“Do you want Freddy Benson to be killed?”
“Of course I want that fucker to be killed?!?!?! I—“
“And do you want to become president someday?”
“Yes!!!!! Of course!!!!!”
“Then, Mr. Mayor, with no intent at disrespect, kindly shut the fuck up and let me do my job here.”
“Hey!!!! That’s no way—“
The wizard levitated up into the air and flew off down the block. Letting out an irritated groan, the mayor entered his house and slammed the door behind him. He kept in touch with his advisors via text, ordering them to gather all men available to fight Freddy and his cohorts. While he did this, he rubbed at the Ruggeri ring on his finger. He wasn’t entirely sure of what secrets laid beneath its surface. He wished he could figure it out. That would give him more leverage over the wizard, who he didn’t entirely trust. In case Victor tried to betray him later, it’d be good to have something to hang over his head.
“I still don’t trust that man” the mayor mumbled to himself. “Even though he knows how to play to my emotions, I still have a feeling that he’s going to try to screw me over later. I hope I’m wrong about this and that I’m not needlessly sacrificing my men for a backstabber….or worse, an ally of the commie’s.”
In that moment, the mayor looked out the window and saw his quiet block was beginning to be covered in a fog.
“That’s odd” the mayor thought to himself. “I wonder if that’s Victor’s doing.”
Just a few short blocks away, Sofya was approaching the isolated block of the mayor’s house. The fog was making it difficult for her to drive, so she primarily relied on the GPS app and her own instincts to guide her there. When she believed she was at the correct address, she pulled over several feet away and parked the car. Turning to Tom in his disguise, she placed her finger on his head.
“You won’t remember a thing” she said calmly.
“What—“ Tom tried to respond, before he blacked out.
Sofya collapsed onto the driver seat, as her consciousness entered Tom’s body. Looking down at herself, Tom laid the driver seat into a bed position, so her body wasn’t jostling on the shifting gear.
“Better” Tom said.
Tom, being mentally controlled by Sofya, got himself out of the car and made his way over to the house. Tom couldn’t see anything, but Sofya was able to sense her way there. He walked for several feet, before turning where Sofya believed the front steps of the mayor’s house were. Walking up the steps, relieved at making the correct choice, Tom, in his disguise, rang the front door bell.
The mayor darted his eyes between his communication device and the fog out the window for several minutes. His advisors began to freak out and were asking the mayor to call off the mission. He adamantly refused, insisting that the wizard knew what he was doing. He was in the middle of a texting spree, when he heard his door bell ring.
“I wonder who that could be” the mayor thought to himself, as he went over to answer his front door.
When he opened it, he saw an old, haggard looking man, standing before him. His face was wrinkly and pruny, his stature hunchbacked and his clothes tattered at the seams.
“I’m not interested in donating any money” the mayor said snippily, as he tried to close the door. “I already use enough taxpayer money to pay for you bums to live.”
“Wait” Tom replied in a hoarse sounding voice, as he held the door open with his pruny looking hand.
“Get the hell away from my house, you creep, or I’m calling my police!”
“Wait, Mr. Mayor. I can help you.”
“You can help me by kindly getting the fuck off my property right now!!!!”
“I know where Michael kidnapped Tom and his dog.”
“What?!?! Kidnapped?!?!”
The mayor opened the door, to look at the haggard old man more closely. The mayor didn’t realize that this Tom in disguise, with Sofya controlling his speech with her mind.
“How do you know I’ve been looking for that commie?!?!”
“The whole town knows, Mr. Mayor. It’s been all over the news.”
“How would a homeless bum like you have access to the news?!”
“That is irrelevant. I know where he is keeping him.”
“Oh yeah? Spill.”
“The old, abandoned paper good factory just outside of town. Michael has Tom held hostage there, with the plan of trying to force him into helping him go after you.”
“Oh shit! I’ve got to go over there right now!”
The mayor was about to call someone on his communication device, before he had a thought.
“Wait a second! How do I know this isn’t some sort of trick?”
“It’s not. If you want to find them, then go to the warehouse. They will be there.”
Tom, in disguise, turned around and disappeared into the fog. The mayor began to panic, before he decided to tell his advisors to send everyone over to the warehouse right away. Once this was done, the mayor called up his driver and had them come pick him up at his house. What the mayor hadn’t noticed was that someone had watched this exchange he had with the old man at his front door.
Invisible to the human eye, the wizard lurked in the shadows of the hall. He had flown around the block, before sneaking back into the house undetected. He wanted to see if the mayor would betray his trust. He also intended to bait Freddy and Michael into coming to the house. If it seemed to be abandoned, then they might pounce. That’s when he planned to strike. However, that was not an option available to him anymore.
“Freddy and Michael are trying to lure me out” the wizard thought to himself. “I know this is some sort of trap. I should have revealed myself and removed the disguise from that man Tom. I could have ripped it off and used him as bait. If I held him hostage here, then Freddy and Michael may have been tempted to come rescue him. He may have successfully fooled the incompetent mayor with that disguise of his, but he couldn’t fool me.
“Still, those were not his words, but the words of someone else. Sofya. I sense Sofya’s presence somewhere. If Sofya has set this all up, then that means she’ll be at the warehouse as well. I really miss her. Even though she betrayed me and landed me in that god forsaken prison, she is my daughter and I want to patch things up with her. I have a feeling that I’m making a big mistake here by doing this, but I’m going to go over to the warehouse, just in case she shows up. What do I have to lose?”
At the warehouse…