Malice Magic

By Mark J. DeGregorio

It was early morning when Beaker arrived at the prison. He had set an appointment to see Johnny Solow. Beaker waited until a guard came and escorted him to the visiting chamber. After a few minutes, Solow entered the room. Johnny had on gray prison attire and his hair was a little longer since his incarceration there. Solow smiled at Beaker and said, “Long time no see, old friend.”

Old friend, Beaker knew he was being sarcastic when he said that. “What are you doing here, come to gloat?” Solow asked.

“I came to see what you are planning.” Beaker responded.

Johnny gave Beaker a very uneasy smile and replied, “Now Beaker, what makes you think I’m planning something?”

“Call it a hunch.” Beaker glared at Solow.

Solow turned to the wall, placing his hand on it, and said “Well, I assure you that I…” Johnny stopped and turned towards Beaker, who was still glaring at him, then he continued, “What are you doing... Probing my mind? What do you expect to find with your mind tricks?”

“You and I both know that a war is getting ready to begin, and I know you are going to be a main player in all this,” Beaker stated.

Solow walked over to Beaker and said, “Oh, look who’s talking, I’m not the one who brought Jesmina’s daughter into this.” He turned and stepped away from Beaker and continued, “And speaking of, what was her name? Nonie.” Johnny turned towards Beaker and asked, “When are you going to tell her the truth about you, her, and her real origin. Probably when you’re finished manipulating her into being your little soldier.”

The guard came to escort Beaker from the visiting chamber. As Beaker left the room, Solow placed both hands on the glass window and shouted, “You know this primitive prison will not hold me for long! Do you HEAR ME?”

* * * * * * *

Nonie placed a spoonful of Cocoa Puffs into her mouth and started to munch away. “Are you sure you know what you are doing?” asked the elastic girl to the tech-head.

“Yes,” he responded, “I’ve been planning to do this for awhile now and everything checks out…”

Nonie stretched her neck around to face Alan with her exceptionally large green eyes peering at his baby blues, and asked, “So, how many times have you done this?”

“Counting this time,” Nonie nodded and he continued, “Once.”

Alan picked up a cord and plugged it into an adapter and then to a USB port on Stephanie’s computer, finally he took the other end of the cable and plugged it into the data port in the back of his neck.

Alan found himself pulled into Stephanie’s computer through a vortex of wires and circuitry tunnels until he materialized into the main frame of the computer. Most people would alter their appearance (making themselves better looking) but with Alan, why mess with perfection? He walked to a control panel and waved his hand over it. Another panel appeared and Alan touched a series of buttons and opened the screen.

From the outside, Alan’s body was still in the chair hooked to the computer. His image appeared on the monitor, from his shoulders on up. Alan grinned and said, “W-w-w-w-well, I’m M-m-m-m-max Head R-r-r-r-room.”

Nonie burst out with laughter that some of the cereal fell out of her mouth; Stephanie heard all this, looking up from the book she had been reading to see her brother messing with her computer as if it were a toy. She jumped form the couch, rushed to her computer, and said, “Alan. Get out of my computer, NOW!”

Alan being playful, said, “Yo, Boss. I can give it an overall if you like.”

Stephanie was starting to get upset with her brother, “Alan! If you do anything to screw up my computer, so help me…”

“Steph, take a chill pill, just kidding.” Alan pleaded.

Stephanie glanced over at Alan’s lifeless body, “Just remember Alan, while you’re in there, your body is out here…” Stephanie started to breathe heavily through her teeth “…Completely Defenseless!” Alan’s eyes widen. She had his undivided attention as she continued, “And if you don’t want to come out of there with a head full of lumps, you better not screw up my computer.”

With that said, Alan quickly exited from the computer, back into his body, and unplugged himself from the computer.

Stephanie rushed to examine her computer while Nonie hit Alan with a barrage of questions, “What was it like? What did it feel like? Can you go through the Internet? Can you find a way for me to do that? This is so cool!”

Alan thought of ways to stop all the questions like, I think your Cocoa Puffs are getting soggy. He was glad when he heard the doorbell ring; said, “Hey! Someone is at the door!”

“I’ll get it!” Nonie shouted as she stretched her upper body to the door. James and Penny were standing there when she opened it. “Hey, James and Penny, Alan just did something really cool! He entered a computer! It was totally sci-fi!”

Penny blinked and asked, “Got into a computer? How?”

Nonie stretched her neck and right arm over to Alan, pointed to the data port and said, “He plugged himself from here to the computer.” Nonie turned back to Alan and started with the questions again.

Alan took this as a cue to depart for “his secret project”. He looked at his watch (even though he was not wearing one) and said, “Whoa! Look at the time! Have to be leaving now. See you guys in about a couple of days. Bye!”

Stephanie mumbled to herself, “Wait for it…”

“What is this Secret Project of yours anyway?” Nonie wined in her squeaky voice.

“…And there it is.” Stephanie said out loud. Alan grabbed a bag and headed for the door, but Stephanie blocked his escape. “If you think you’re leaving “me” stuck with that little rubber motor-mouth…Guess again!”

Stephanie placed her hands on her brother’s shoulders, then without warning, grabs him by his t-shirt and said in a threatening manner, “I am not, repeat, NOT going to listen to her ranting about “Alan’s secret project” for another minute.”

Stephanie’s right hand let go of his shirt, while she held tighter with her left. She held her right hand up to his face and transformed it into a fist and continued, “Here’s the deal, you tell Nonie what your “secret project” is, and I’ll let you keep your pearly whites in place…Understand.”

Alan knew she was not bluffing, “All right, I was going to take you guys there anyway, when it was finished. I’ll take you all there now.”

“YIPPEEE!” Nonie shouted and her legs morphed into a spring and she bounced around the apartment.

* * * * * * *

A helicopter flew by the mountains outside the city limits. James was at the controls, since he owned the helicopter, while Alan gave him directions. He indicated a point to set them down. After the helicopter landed, they all got out and looked around. “This place looks awfully familiar.” Nonie said.

Stephanie turned to Alan and asked, “What are we doing here?”

Penny looked around in puzzlement and asked, “Where are we anyway?”

“We’re at the crashed spaceship site…” Stephanie said and turned to her brother and asked, “…Again, what are we doing here, oh dear brother?”

“You wanted to know what I was doing, this is it. Come on, I’ll show you when we get inside.” Alan said and the five started to climb up to the wreckage of the spaceship; Nonie beat them all by stretching up to the ship. When they got to the entrance, Alan pulled out his palm pilot he got for Christmas, entered a code and the hatch opened.

The five entered the ship. Alan strolled over to a control panel and turned on the lights. “Oh Wow! A real, honest-to-goodness spaceship.” Penny gasped.

Nonie stretched her neck around the compartment, then recoiled it back and asked Alan, “What happened to all the cobwebs and dust?”

Alan responded, “I cleaned the place up.”

Stephanie shook her head and snidely commented, “And here you said you didn’t know how to cleanup the apartment, I know somebody who’s going on cleaning detail tomorrow.”

“But why are you fixing up this spaceship for?” Penny asked.

Alan proudly replied, “I figured this would make one hell of a headquarters for Elasticity.”

“COOL!” Nonie blurted.

Stephanie began to think and asked, “So, how is it you know how to repair an alien spaceship?”

“I don’t know, I just do. It’s like all the technology is stuck in my head.” Alan replied.

The tour went on for a hour, Nonie was delighted at the thought of this being her headquarters; Penny was amazed at being inside a real alien spaceship.

However, Stephanie was skeptical at the whole thing. Alan was already ahead of her. “Okay, I know what you’re thinking Steph…”

“Words can’t describe them.” Stephanie replied.

He walked to a pair of huge doors, pulled out his palm pilot, and entered a code and said, “But, I think even you will love this one…and he pushes the button, to reveal…”

The doors opened as Alan continued, “A small fully operation, cargo spaceship.”

Stephanie said in amazement, “This is going to be my ship.”

“Just for you sis.” Alan smirked.

Through all this, James was mysteriously quiet. As he and the others left the ship, it became an image in a crystal ball. Linda, who happens to be James’ ex-wife, has been watching him for some time. She has never forgiven him for what he has done, and has planed a suitable revenge for him. “I’ve seen enough. My revenge will be to remove that bitch from his life, and then destroy him.” She laughed maniacally.

* * * * * * *

James rushed into Beaker’s lab. He had some disturbing news that he should know. James approached Beaker, who was working on an experiment, and called out, “Beaker! We need to talk.”

Without looking up Beaker responded, “Can it wait? I’m in the middle of this experiment.”

“It has to do with the ship…” James informed him.

Still engrossed with his work, he replied, “What about it?”

James crossed his arms and asked, “Did you know that Alan was working on repairs on the ship? You remember, the Terisen.”

Finally, Beaker pulled his attention away from his experiment. “What!” Beaker turned to face James.

“He’s been making repairs on our spaceship for the past few months.” James said.

Beaker shut off the power to his experiment, and stepped out from the shadows to approach James. Only this time, Beaker looked different. He had blue skin, which seemed to complement his blonde hair. He raised his clawed hands to remove the goggles he was wearing. Beaker begins to frown showing his protruding fangs, as he reached for his glasses. “My God, I was wondering when that data download was going to start.”

Displeased by Beaker’s response, James demanded, “You mean you knew about this all along! When were you going to tell me this, after all, I am the Captain of the Terisen.”

“Well how was I suppose to know that he’d be fixing the ship?” Beaked retorted.

“Well, you were monitoring everything. I guess you should have offered some attention to what Alan was doing instead of Jesmina’s daughter.”

Beaker removed his lab coat and said, “Well, we better find out just how much he knows.”

James grabbed Beaker by the shoulder and said, “Uh Beaker, you might want to change your appearance a bit, you’re looking a little BLUE.”

Beaker looked at his hands and replied, “Oops, I almost forgot to change.” Beaker pressed a button on his watch, and transformed back into his human disguise. “Okay, now I’m ready. Let’s go.”

* * * * * * *

Penny, Alan, Stephanie, and Nonie were returning home. Alan had giving Stephanie the schematics of the cargo ship in the hanger of the large alien spaceship. “This will show me how to fly this ship?” Stephanie asked.

“Yea, and to make it easier, I modified the controls so it’s more like a helicopter.” Alan replied.

Nonie was stilling bouncing with joy, said, “I can’t believe I now have my very own “Fortress of Solitude” where I can fight crime.”

Penny looked at Nonie and said, “Well remember, you’re not Supergirl.”

“More like Stupid girl at times.” Stephanie joked.

Nonie stopped bouncing, glared at Stephanie, and said, “Hey! I don’t do stupid things!”

Stephanie began listing the goof-ups of Nonie’s. “Oh, how about the time you scared yourself silly the first time we were on the spaceship. Then there was the time you refused to get out of bed, just because you didn’t want to go to your reunion. Then you wrecked my car. You got yourself woven into macramé. You got a simple job as an elf, only to wind up at the North Pole with Santa. You knock me over at a wedding, just for the bouquet. Then there was all the damage you did to the wrestling ring…”

“You can stop anytime Steph, you made your point.” Nonie snapped.

As they approached the apartment complex, a woman appeared from nowhere. She was tall with long, dark, curly hair and scantily clad, dressed as if she was a fugitive from a D&D game. “Hello Penny, long time no see.”

Penny’s face drained of color as she cried, “Linda!”

“Linda?” Alan asked.

Linda grabbed Penny by the throat, pulled her close, and said, “You never told them about me…” she turned to the others and continued, “I’m Linda, James' ex-wife. Now say good-bye to Penny, because she’s coming with me.”

They could see the terror in Penny’s face. Nonie struck a hero’s pose and said, “Not with Elasticity around you're not.” Nonie’s jeans and t-shirt transformed into her Elasticity costume, “Let Penny go, you big meanie.”

Linda lifted her other hand out and began to chant something. The hand she held out started to glow and energy spouted from her fingers. Elasticity dodged to the right into the street as the bolt of energy few past her.

Elasticity stuck her tongue out at Linda and said, “Haw haw! You missed me! Nyahhh!”

Linda lifted an eyebrow and responded, “Did I?”

From behind her, Elasticity could hear a diesel engine start. Slowly she turned to see what it was. It was moving towards her. She turned back to face the evil sorceress and sighed, “A steamroller, why did it have to be a steamroller!”

The front roller bumped Elasticity on the butt, knocking her forward to the ground. It then started to roll over her little elf boot covered feet. As it started to press her legs down flat, she tried to pull herself up. The roller rolled over her thighs and flattened her little butt to the ground.

“I see you have “pressing” matters to attend to, as do I, try to smile when it flattens your head.” Linda laughed and teleported Penny and herself away.

The steamroller was already passing over Elasticity’s back when she sarcastically said, “Everyone’s a comedian.” then her head was squashed under the steamroller.

After it passed over her, Stephanie and Alan rushed over to Nonie. Stephanie asked, “Nonie! Are you alright?”

“Boy Nonie! Did you get flattened!” Alan added as a statement.

Elasticity peeled her two-dimensional head up and sighed, “You know, I’m really getting tired of always getting myself flattened out in every adventure I go on.”

James and Beaker arrived and saw Nonie as Elasticity, peeling her flattened form off the ground. James asked, “How did she get flattened this time…” then notice that Penny was missing, “…hey, where’s Penny?”

* * * * * * *

Linda had Penny chained to the wall as she prepared a potion. Penny searched round the room for a way out. The room was done in medieval, sort of like Linda’s attire. It looked like part dungeon, part wizard’s laboratory. The corner of the room had a suit of armor and on the other side a table stockpiled with potions and chemicals. Linda turned to her and said, “I suppose you would like to know what I intend to do with you. If you don’t, I’m going to tell you anyway.”

“As if I could stop you.” Penny snapped.

Linda slowly strolled around the room holding a bottle as she explained, “I’m going to slowly turn James into stone, to match that stone-hard head of his, with this potion I’m preparing and let him watch as I imprisons his wife…” Linda pointed at Penny, “…that’s you, into this bottle I’m holding and throw the bottle into that bottomless pit over there…” Linda showed Penny a deep dark hole in the floor, “…then I’m going to place the stone James into my garden so the birds will have something to sit on.” Then Linda began to laugh maniacally.

* * * * * * *

After they told James and Beaker about Linda, they went to get someone to help them battle his ex. Elasticity stretched her neck to the ground, then her nose and started to sniff around. “Where are James and Beaker going to find somebody to go up against a sorceress?” Alan asked.

Stephanie replied, “How should I know dumb-dumb, and speaking of which, have you found anything yet Nonie?”

“Ri’m rill riffing round.” She answered.

“What?” Stephanie questioned.

“She’s still sniffing around.” Alan replied. Stephanie gave her brother a glance as he said, “What? You never watched Scooby-Doo?”

Stephanie rolled her eyes and sarcastically sighed, “You two are a cartoon.”

“Rey! Ri Round Romething!” and before they had a chance, Elasticity took off.

Stephanie dropped her arms to her sides and said, “Oh, now what?”

“Come on before we lose her!” Alan shouted.

Alan and Stephanie ran for two blocks before they caught up to Nonie, they slowed down to a stop when they saw Nonie standing at a vendor stand getting herself a Hot Dog. The vein on Stephanie’s forehead was starting to show, as was the redness in her face. She walked up to Elasticity, gave her a kick in the ass, and yelled, “You’re suppose to be searching for Penny, not stuffing your face with food!”

“Come on, let’s get back to the apartment to meet up with James and Beaker.” Alan said.

* * * * * * *

A short time later, James and Beaker arrived with a strange man. “This is Gordo, he’s a mage.” James introduced.

Elasticity frowned, “We don’t need a mage, we need someone who can cast spells like Linda.”

Beaker sighed, “What do you think a mage is?”

“A slang for a magazine.” She answered. Stephanie slapped her hand on her forehead.

Gordo looked at the dim-witted rubber-girl explained, “A mage is like a wizard.”

“Yea, It’s like in the RPG of Dungeons & Dragons where the magic user is called the Mage class…” Alan spouted until he realized what he was saying, “…not that I ever played the game or anything.”

Stephanie asked, “So, how are we going to find Linda?”

“Way ahead of you sis, I’ll just plug myself into the computer and search though the Internet hack into the information grid and get her address.” Alan bragged.

James picked up the phone book and said, “Or we could just get her address from here.”

Nonie remembered what happened with her last encounter with Linda; sneaked into Stephanie’s room to get one of those blasters that she got from the alien ship. Nonie quietly opened a drawer and reached her hand into it to retrieve a blaster. (Snap!) Nonie quickly pulled her hand from Stephanie’s dresser drawer to find a mousetrap at the end of her hand. “I told you that you’re not to touch those blasters, ever.”

Nonie, a.k.a. Elasticity, spun around to see Stephanie standing at the door of her room, holding the blasters, asked, “Are you looking for these?”

The six set out to rescue Penny from the clutches of James’ ex-wife.

* * * * * * *

They arrived at Linda’s lair, it was the only one that looked like a castle, “Now what is a castle doing in the middle of this city?” Stephanie griped.

“The drawbridge is pulled up. How are we going to get in?” Alan asked.

James replied, “Start looking for a hole in this stone wall everyone.” James pointed to Alan, Stephanie and Elasticity and instructed, “You three go down that way and look for anyway we can get in.”

As soon as they were out of sight, James walked to the wall, placed his back against it and, with his foot, bashed a hole in the stonewall. He then called out, “Hey! I found a hole in the wall over here!”

Beaker whispered to James, “Smooth move there.”

Elasticity, Alan and Stephanie came back and saw the hole, Stephanie questioned, “Where did that hole come from?”

“Who cares, let’s get inside,” Nonie said.

Beaker instructed, “When we get inside, we’ll split up, Alan, you and Nonie search the top floor, Gordo and Stephanie will search the ground floor, and I’ll take James and search the basement. Let’s get moving.”

As each one crawled in through the hole, Linda was watching their every move through her crystal ball.

Linda was, sitting at the table running her finger back and forth over the crystal ball. She got up and walked over to Penny and said, “We are having company…” Linda glanced across the room and saw the armor in the corner, then gave a large smile, “…if they came all this way, they should have a reception.”

“I knew James wouldn’t let me down.” Penny cried.

“That’s what I counted on.” Linda retorted, and walked to the suit of armor. “Let’s see how they like this.” Linda started chanting a spell and waving her hands. She picked up a steel rod and placed it on the armor’s shoulder. The armor began to glow and when it stopped, the armor came to life. “Knight, there are strangers in the house, take care of them!” Linda commanded. The armor walked out of the room while Linda prepared for James.

* * * * * * *

Alan and Elasticity are creeping down a dark and spooky hallway. “Do you think there are any ghosts in here?” Elasticity nervously asked.

“God! I hope not, this place is creepy enough without ghosts.”

Elasticity turned and saw two large black ghosts moving along the wall. “AAAAAUGH!! GHOSTS!” and she ran, colliding with Alan, knocking him to the floor.

Picking himself off the floor, he called, “Nonie! Get back here!”

Elasticity stopped, turned, and ran back to get Alan before the ghosts gets him, “Come on! We got to get out of here!”

Alan got off the floor, moving his hand back and forth and said, “Look, see. No ghosts. It was just our shadows.” Elasticity moved her arms around and turned to Alan as he continued, “…rule one for superheroes, don’t be afraid of your own shadows. Okay!”

As the two resumed the search for Penny, they could hear the sound of moving metal in the hallway. They stopped, and the noise stopped. “Did you hear that Nonie?”

Elasticity swallowed and replied, “Yea, but I don’t want to know what it was.”

They moved two more feet and heard it again. Elasticity turned to look at the wall and asked, “How many shadows are we casting?”

“Two.”

Elasticity points at the wall and said, “Well, I see three shadows here.”

The two slowly turned around to see a suit of armor pulling out a sword. Alan turned towards Elasticity and said, “Remember what I told you about being afraid? Forget it! RUN!!”

Alan and Elasticity ran just in time before the armor’s sword would have slashed off their heads. Alan and Elasticity could hear the animated armor following close behind them. They ran into a room and slam the door behind them. “Quick! Let’s barricade the door so ol’ tin-head can’t get in.” Alan said as he grabbed a dresser chest and pushed it to the door.

Elasticity grabbed an arm full of pillows and placed it at the door. Alan pushed a couch to the door; Nonie placed a lamp by the door. On the other side of the room, a panel slid open and the armored knight stepped through. It walked and picked up a chest. Elasticity placed a wastepaper basket in front of the door. The armor handed Alan the chest. Alan took it and said, “Gee, thanks a lot.” And turned to add it to barricade, then stopped and cried, “Yikes! It’s Tin-Head! Let’s get out of here!”

Alan threw the chest at the suit of armor knocking its head off. When it bent down to retrieve it, Alan and Elasticity tore through the barricade faster than it took them to put it up, and ran out of the room.

Alan and Elasticity ran up a flight of stairs and into another room. Elasticity pointed and called out, “Look! There’s Penny.” The two approached her, “Boy, are we glad to see you.”

“Never mind that Nonie! Get me out of these chains before Linda or that metal monster returns.” Penny pleaded.

Alan rubbed his hair-covered chin and mumbled, “Uhm, manacles, half inch chain, I’ll have to pick the lock.” Alan went to work on the left manacle. He got that opened and started on the right, when the animated Knight kicked opened door. Alan cried, “Nonie! Get Penny out of her chains!” then grabbed a shield from the wall to hold off the armor.

“There is a set of keys in that drawer over there!” Penny cried out. Elasticity stretched her arm to the drawer and opened it. She placed her hand in and felt around until she fond a set of keys. Recoiling her arm, she started to fumble through the keys to find the right one.

Alan hollered, “Hurry up! Can’t hold him off forever!”

“That’s it! That’s the key!” Penny said. Elasticity placed the key into the manacle and opened the lock.

“I did it! I did it! I opened the lock!” Elasticity joyfully said.

Alan knocked the armor’s head off again, as it bended to pick it up, Alan kicked it in the butt, knocking it to the floor. “Okay! Let’s get out of here!” he yelled, and the three ran out of the room.

* * * * * * *

Penny lead the way to the ground floor and into a room which looked like cross between a dungeon and a wizard’s laboratory. They stopped to catch their breaths. “Whew! I thought we’d never get rid of ol’ Tin head!” Alan sighed.

Elasticity walked to the table with all the chemicals and potions on it and asked, “Hey! Look at all the bubbly stuff. I wonder what it is.”

“DON’T TOUCH THAT!!!” screamed Penny. Which made Elasticity jump back in fear.

“What’s wrong with you Penny! You didn’t have to scare us half to death!” Alan snapped.

Penny looked to the floor and said, “Sorry, I guess with all the excitement…”

Alan cut her off, whispered, “Shhh! I think someone’s coming. I think it’s tin-head.” And he grabbed a stool by the table, took a position by the door.

The door opened, Alan swung and hit Stephanie with the stool. Gordo entered behind Stephanie as Elasticity said, “It’s Stephanie!”

Alan knew he was going to get it from her, tried to apologize, “Gee Steph, I’m sorry. I thought you were the suit of armor.”

Stephanie glared at her brother from the floor where she sat and asked, “Do I look like a suit of armor? Numbskull!” Then she got up and grabbed her lunk-headed brother. Before she could punch him out, they heard someone else coming to the door.

All their expressions turned to surprise when James, Beaker, and PENNY entered the room.

“Two Pennys?” Alan fearfully wined. All turned to see the Penny standing across the room, transformed into Linda. Elasticity still standing by the table, ducked under to hide.

“Hello James.” Linda smiled as she lifted both her arms up to cast a spell, “I’ve waited a long time for this.”

Linda started to rotate her arms as they began to glow. “Pause!” an energy bolt left her hands and struck James.

Unable to move, James asked, “What did you do?”

“Fool Thought!” Linda directed to Beaker and he was in a state, which made Nonie look like Einstein.

Gordo raised his hands to cast a spell. Linda was ready for that. “Silence!” and Gordo found he could not speak.

Linda smiled and smirked, “Well, that takes care of the threats.”

Alan wined, “But, what about us?”

Linda turned to Alan and snidely responded, “You, little man, Blondie, and that rubber-headed idiot of a hero, are of NO threat to me.” She turned to finish James off. As Linda began to chant her spell, Penny grabbed her by her arms, which interrupted the spell. The backlash knocked Linda to the floor, however, Penny wasn’t so fortunate. Thrown through the air, onto the table of chemicals and potions Linda had prepared. The table broke in half, sending Penny and everything tumbling to the floor. Everything spilled over Penny, knocking her out.

Linda got up and saw the mess, she furiously yelled, “You ruined everything! You destroyed my potions for revenge!”

Alan displayed an act of courage by sneaking up behind Linda. When he was about to strike, Linda turned and grabbed him by the throat. “What do you think you’re going to do, little man?”

Linda lifts Alan into the air and threw him at Stephanie, who was starting to take aim at Linda with her blasters, knocking them both down. “Pitiful, all you’re doing is wasting my time…” Linda noticed that Elasticity was nowhere to be found, asked, “…Wait, where is that little rubber-headed nitwit…”

“Here I am! SURPRISE!” Elasticity jumped from the ceiling where she had disguised herself as a ceiling fan. She landed on Linda, wrapping herself around her to keep her from moving her arms and casting any spells.

Linda struggled to get loose, muttered, “You little rubber…” Elasticity stretched her arm to where Alan laid, pulled off his shoe, then his sock.

“… Fool. Why I should…” Linda cut short when Elasticity stuffed Alan’s stinky sock into her mouth.

“Ah, put a sock in it, will ya.” Elasticity grinned. By this time, the spells on James, Beaker, and Gordo had expired. Elasticity looked at James and hinted, “A little help here, I can’t hold her for much longer.”

James walked to where Elasticity had Linda, replied, “It would be my pleasure.” He took his fist and brought it down on top of Linda’s head, knocking her out. James glanced over where Penny laid, and rushed to her side.

Stephanie looked at the fallen sorceress and asked, “What is that in her mouth?”

Elasticity stretched a smile across her face and replied, “Alan’s stinky sock!”

“Ewe! That is just gross!” Stephanie commented.

Alan asked, “Well, what do we do now?”

Beaker replied, “She was going to place Penny into a bottle, maybe we should do that to her. At least, she couldn’t cast any spells trapped inside of a bottle.”

Alan shook his head and said, “She’d would be one pissed-off genie if she were to be let out.”

Stephanie turned to Gordo and said, “Do it.”

Gordo started the spell, and placed Linda into the bottle she had intended for Penny. Afterwards, Gordo took the bottle away to a mystic place he knew. Somewhere, out of sight, out of mind.

* * * * * * *

Epilogue:

Gordo went back to his mystic realm, to rest from the battle. As James, Alan, Stephanie, and Nonie entered Penny’s hospital room, she was already up and fully recovered from the injuries Linda gave her.

“I feel find. Let’s go home, James.” Penny begged.

Stephanie scratched her head and said, “I though you were more hurt than this.”

“Well, I still feel find, so, let’s go home James.” Penny continued to beg.

Beaker entered the room and called James from the room. After they were out in the hall, Beaker informed James, “I took a sample of Penny’s blood, and a tissue sample. I ran a few tests and found that her metabolic rate has increased.”

“In English.” James sighed.

“Your wife, Penny, seems to be speeding up. Her recovery from her injuries is just an example. Soon, she’ll be able to move at super-speed.”

“Oh, that’s just lovely, as if she wasn’t hyper enough, to add super-speed to that. Linda really did get her revenge on me.”

Penny came out with her room with her bag and said, “Come on James, Let’s go! I got all this energy to burn, and I can think of a million things that need to be done around the house!”

James rolled his eyes and muttered, “Thanks, Linda.”

The End!