Author's Note: This has been a very fun ride and a pleasure writing with you, Lancee. :)
Anansewa saw Jack and Ethan rush for the entrance that she and Khaki and CT had entered. Khaki took advantage of the Djinn and the Mad Scientist's distraction to help CT get back up. He was clutching his side with one arm as his other was draped around Khaki's rather broad shoulders. In fact it was the first time Anansewa had noticed how broad they'd grown lately.
No time for distractions. She chided herself before rushing over to help Khaki carry CT towards the exit that Jack and Ethan were just about to reach.
"You wanted me Sorceress? You've got me!" boomed Jubbar the Magnificent.
"Sorcerer! I did not study the arcane magics only to be demeaned as lesser than my male colleagues!" insisted the Sorcerer Scientist.
"Honey, no one likes a petulant screaming child. Here, let's spruce you up a bit," said Jubbar with an affectation and a snide laugh as he snapped his fingers and the Sorcerer Scientist's lab coat and rather conservative dress was replaced with a flowing pink floral sundress with red and blue flowers in its design, that looked suspiciously like what a toddler might have worn if it was smaller.
The Sorcerer Scientist looked annoyed, and with a flick of her wrist was back in her own preferred manner of dress while Jubbar continued to laugh. She took the djinn's laughter as an excuse to shift his manner of clothing from something stereotypically seen out of The Arabian Nights and into a diaper with a baby bonnet.
"Oh ho! So that's how we're playing things, are we?" asked Jubbar, turning the diaper and bonnet back into his usual attire.
By this point, the three Adolescent Avengers had managed to catch up with Jack and Ethan who were pounding on the only exit doors to the lab--which were locked since the backup generator had kicked in.
"Maybe there's something in my pocket knife that'll help us pick the lock!" said Jack as he fumbled with his pocket knife.
"Don't bother... I've got this." said CT with a groan as he took his arm from around Anansewa and pulled out of his utility belt a small bag of tiny bug-like fly drones. Recognizing what was about to happen, they all took a few steps back away from the door.
"I challenge you, Jubbar of the Lamp to a Sorcerer's Duel!" insisted the Sorcerer Scientist.
Jubbar cracked his knuckles, and stretched his arms before saying, "You're going to regret that."
Red smoke and violet energy began to swirl about the two figures, distorting the majority of the room.
BOOM! The doors exploded around the mechanical lock. They all ran forward into the darkened hallway lit with red emergency lights except, Anansewa noticed Jack after rushing forward first was now turning back around and rushing back. She turned back and saw that Ethan was frozen mid-stride, a white glow surrounded him like an aura at the edge of what looked to be a red and violet hurricane of magical energy and smoke. Anansewa urged Khaki and CT to keep going and turned back and went to help Jack with Ethan.
"Don't mistake this for a chance to escape, boy! Madam Boszorkány never leaves loose ends dangling!" snapped the Old Woman from the platform.
"Let Ethan go!" demanded Ethan as he tried to grab and drag the frozen Ethan across the threshold and into the hallway.
"Don't waste your time, boy!" said the old woman whose name must be Madam Boszorkány.
Anansewa took the old witch's focus on Jack for granted and with a few quick weaves, sent an enchanted orange-glowing web in the direction of the old woman. She halted it with her other hand and paused it in mid-air only for the orange to give way to white and begin to unwind and disintegrate. This was shortly followed by a gasp and a gurgle from the Madam and both the half-disintegrated spell web and Ethan fell to the floor, released from Madam Boszorkány's magical hold.
"Thanks for the distraction!" said Jack to Anansewa.
Confused, Anansewa looked up at Madam Boszorkány, only to see the old witch clutching at her heart, where a throwing knife had landed squarely and expertly.
"Good shot, Stealthy Scout," praised Anansewa, and she helped him get Ethan up and all three ran into the hallway. Eventually she took the lead and led them up and out of the underground laboratory of the Sorcerer Scientist and up into the front of the building where they found Khaki and CT having just made it themselves. They quickly rushed into a nearby alleyway, away from the front of the building to recover and unwind.
"Great job, team. Someone call the police," said Khaki.
"Already on it," said CT as he tapped the side of his goggles which acted like a built-in cellphone.
"You were awesome, Jack...er Stealthy Scout!" shouted Ethan.
"It was nothing," said Jack, with a bit of false and true modesty as his cheeks turned red beneath his green domino mask.
"Ken! Ken! You should have seen it, that old witch had me frozen in place, and Anansewa came in and cast this spell that distracted the old witch, and Jack he threw and killed the hag with one of his knives!" gushed Ethan. Khaki just stood listening
"You remember my name?" asked Khaki.
"Of course I do, Ken, you're my side- wait... I remember. I remember! I remember everything!" squealed Ethan as he jumped up and down for joy.
"Dropping to the floor suddenly like that must have cleared some things up," said Anansewa.
"I don't care what did it, I remember!"
Ethan quickly went on a serial hugging spree, first hugging Khaki, and saying "Oh, Ken, you don't know how proud I am of you. You've got some real leadership qualities in you!"
Then Ethan hugged CT saying, "Thank you for getting us out of there!"
And then he came to Anansewa, "Thank you for coming back for me and Jack," he whispered before rushing over to give Jack a big old bear hug.
"Remember what? What do you remember, Ethan?" asked Jack, looking confused.
It was then the fleeting moment of jubilation popped like a balloon. Ethan pulled back from the hug and looked up and met Jack's eyes. The shorter boy, Anansewa could see, could only see genuine confusion and
"You'll remember soon, right guys? Jack'll remember too, right?" asked Ethan, not wanting to admit reality.
"He won't, Ethan..." said Anansewa quietly.
"Why not?" asked Ethan with a snap.
"Because he sacrificed his memories for his skills in order to help us rescue you," said Khaki, quietly and somberly, placing a hand on Ethan's shoulder like a supportive older brother.
"You're... you're... lying. That can't be true!" insisted Ethan, shrugging Khaki's grip on his shoulder and tears treacherously escaping his eyes as he began to cry.
"It is... I cast the spell myself," Anansewa admitted.
Ethan's head snapped to stare at her and a look of utter hurt and betrayal crossed his face, before it shifted as an idea took hold.
"Undo the spell!" insisted Ethan.
"I can't undo the spell. It was a healing charm to heal the concussion in his head. We hoped it would heal everything so he'd be back to normal quicker. But like anything involving the mind and magic--one has to be careful less you do permanent damage, and the spell healed it so all his memories from before the concussion are gone for forever. He has his motor skills, muscle memory, and abilities from before, but everything else about his life is just... gone."
"And you cast this spell on him, knowing it would do that?!"
"It was at his insistence. I explained the potential dangers, I tried to discourage him, but he insisted on rescuing you. He knew the chance--he took it and he lost," said Anansewa.
"What did I forget? Why is everyone talking all of a sudden like I'm not standing right here?!" grumbled Jack.
"Confusing isn't it?" asked a booming voice, and everyone turned to see the Djinn casually leaning against the wall of the alleyway. In his hands he held his lamp, which still looked ancient, ornate, forged in brass that was etched with swirling designs that shifted when you stared too long.
"What are you doing here?" asked Khaki
"Is that the thanks I get for stripping the magic from that pitiful excuse for a sorceress and saving you five from becoming her playthings? I believe that ingratitude hurt my feelings," said Jubbar.
"Thank you for the deus ex machina save, but answer Khaki's question," interjected CT.
"I'm glad one of you five were taught basic manners. I've come to return my lamp to its current caretaker."
"Caretaker?" asked Jack with confusion.
"Yes, unlike most fairy stories your kind tells about us, when you release a Djinn from its bottle, you become bound to serve the djinn in exchange for a wish. Otherwise our lamps would grow rusted and deteriorate with time--and I don't know about you, but rust completely clashes with my aesthetic I have in my lamp. We Djinn need caretakers for our lamps, our homes, to ensure that when we are recharging our energies in there, that our home is being looked after and protected from various different fairies, ghouls and spirits."
Jubbar then placed the ornate lamp into Ethan's hands.
"Now, I'll require you to polish it neatly and to put it in a nice prominent place when I'm not using it. Somewhere where it wouldn't look out of place, but won't stick out like a sore thumb."
Ethan looked at the lamp in his hands and then quietly asked, "Jubbar, you can grant wishes..."
"Memory still a problem for you boyo?" asked Jubbar.
"No, I remember," countered Ethan.
"Good. You were starting to worry me, kid," said Jubbar with a smirk.
Ethan swallowed the yell he wanted to shout back at being called kid and said, "Can you grant me another wish?"
"There was only one wish for freeing me, and only because I was feeling generous at being released from my lamp."
"But if I'm going to be your glorified housekeeper and protector when you come back to rest up, then that is worth another wish."
"Oh no, that's not how this works, junior."
Anansewa intejected, "But if the first wish was in exchange for releasing you, then naturally you've established a contractual relationship with Ethan. And from what I recall about magic law, however you establish a magical relationship, has to be maintained or else it is subject to termination."
"I don't recall you being there when the relationship was established," grumbled Jubbar, who didn't even bother to argue her point.
"Do I need to be in order to report you to the Charm Council?" asked Anansewa.
"Fine, since we're getting all contractual about it," sighed the Djinn who then poofed into existence a typewriter that typed on its own, a pair of glasses that he perched on his nose, looking over the document that was being typed into existence. When it was finished, the djinn tore the paper from the typewriter and handed it to Ethan.
"Here you go. In exchange for looking after my lamp for eternity--"
Anansewa mimed starting to cast a communications web.
"--not eternity, let's say the next... let's say the next 5 years or so...you will receive one free wish. The contract remains open to renewal if terms are amenable to both parties, and is subject to ending if neither party lives up."
"And no tricks with the wish," insisted Ethan.
Jubbar took the contract back from Ethan, crossed out a line with a pen he pulled from behind his ear and wrote in: "a wish without tricks."
"All right, then I wish for Jack to remember everything," said Ethan.
Jubbar flicked his hand but the sound of a crash through the alley they were in occurred, as though the wish had been bounced off of Jack.
"No can do, I'm afraid, try something else."
"What do you mean, no can do? You're an all-powerful djinn, surely you have the power to make any wish come true!" insisted Ethan.
"Your friend here has a spell that was cast on him that already caused him to remember. Ipso Factso, I can't make him remember what is no longer there to be remembered," explained Jubbar.
"But he's forgotten it all!"
"I warned you boys about head trauma in the beginning, remember... well, you remember. Wish for something I can grant," insisted the Djinn.