In the hallway, a custodian minded his own business doing his job, when he turned a corner and saw something coming out of the door. Not sure what to do, the custodian rushed downstairs, hoping to call for help.

However, the person was unaware that the principal was occupied elsewhere at the moment. Benjamin, still inside the office, continued searching for the crystal sphere. To his shock, however, the information he found had nothing of interest.

What’s going on here? Did that girl lie to me? If so, where was the sphere then? Has everything I’ve done so far all been for nothing? Why...?

Benjamin’s thoughts were interrupted when he looked down and spotted a speaker in one of the slightly open drawers. After seeing it, a small smirk appeared on his face as he had thought up another idea.

.-.-.-.

“What’s happening?” Isabelle asked upon noticing her laptop moving around going haywire.

“I don’t know!” Nicholas replied.

The device threw sparks around the area; the two ducked for cover underneath their desks until it died down. After falling on the floor, the two looked up as the chaos stopped. The laptop floated over to where Isabelle was, sitting on the floor, shocked, and gently fell onto her lap.

“That… was weird. What happened?” Nicholas asked, rubbing his head.

“Beats me.” Isabelle shrugged. “But that doesn’t matter now; we need to go somewhere more secure and discuss this at a later time.” The two got up as she placed the now glowing laptop back into her bag. “I’m sure no one is out—”

“Attention, may I have your attention, everyone?” The speakers had turned on as a familiar voice shouted through the speakers. “Wait, is this thing turned on right now? Am I doing this, right? What do you humans say to, uh, testing? Ah, whatever.”

That voice, oh no. Isabelle thought as beads of sweat fell from her face.

“Regardless, this is your new principal speaking with a special announcement. I’m more than willing to give anyone a paid week off; all they have to do is one thing for me.

Find the girl with pink hair and yellow glasses and steal the crystal sphere from her by any means necessary. Bring it to a good-looking man in a purple cape and hat, and I’ll reward you handsomely. You have until the end of the day...”

“Shoot, we can’t stay here any longer. What are we going to do now?!” Isabelle cried.

As Isabelle panicked, Nicholas comforted her and told her not to worry, as he had an idea, albeit a semi-stupid one. He pointed out toward a fire escape that they could use to get out quickly.

But they’d have to traverse outside the building via the windows. However, they didn’t want to risk getting caught by any of the students or teachers that would be lurking around.

At first, Isabelle hesitated to respond, but she eventually gulped and nodded in agreement as they hurried over to the windows with her bag and laptop in hand. He was coming, and they had to get out of there as soon as possible.

.-.-.-.

Meanwhile, Benjamin, noticing the door locked from the outside, tried to use magic to open it and get out. When it didn’t work, he feared that his time spent on Earth had caused his powers to grow weaker.

Enraged and petrified at the thought of becoming like those human scum, Benjamin decided to force open the door.

It had worked a little too well as he fell along with the now knocked down door, but Benjamin didn’t have time to think about that; he had a sphere to collect.

To his surprise, almost nobody was out in the halls. Where could they have gone? Has everyone gone outside already, or were they somewhere else, like the gym or emporium, not taking into what Benjamin had said?

Benjamin noticed from the corner of his eyes Isabelle and Nicholas climbing out of the windows trying to escape. He wanted to give them a hard time as revenge, but that wasn’t what he had in mind!

No matter, the great dark magician will go all the way down to meet up with them. After all, there’s no way they could ever get out and sustain minimal damage without encountering him. Right?

Such a shame Benjamin didn’t watch where he ran, and yet again, slipped on something that caused him to slip and slide across the hallway. A few people moved out of the way as his foot got accidentally stuck in a bucket and tumbled down the stairway just ahead of him.

He crashed through one of the emergency exit doors and landed outside the school. A little hurt by the landing impact, Benjamin rubbed his head and brushed the dust off him that made his nose itchy.

He got up and looked around, wondering where the heck they could be and if they had gotten out-of-school property yet. Benjamin looked up to where he was, as two familiar figures walked across the school building like they were wall climbing a mountain of some sort.

Benjamin waited on the side of the building for them to enter the other room with the fire escape pole. He slid down with their belongings before catching them and taking them back. He opened the door next to them like it was a secret passage to some underground basement. The backpacks look thick, and Benjamin figured he’d be prone to excel at running.

Benjamin waited until they walked far enough ahead so they wouldn’t see him before he dashed towards them. He successfully caught up to them, catching them by surprise and knocking Isabelle down on the ground.

As Nicholas asked if she was ok and with her replying, Benjamin noticed something - The backpack had glowed violently.

Was it supposed to do that? He thought as he stared down at it, trying to take a closer look. He was never able to get it to do something like that before. What did this girl do to the sphere to make it react like that?