Right before they left the DEO, Carter gave Pat and Courtney a cube for each of them. Carter’s words still rung in his head and the scene still played in his head. “Pat, catch”, Carter threw Pat and Courtney their respective cubes as they left the meeting room. “I’ve made a pocket dimension in that cube to store your robot and Courtney’s staff. Just press the rune and throw it. The pocket dimension will release STRIPE and the Star Staff. After you’re done, you can store them back in, by pressing the rune again and touch the cube to what you want to store inside.”
Pat did not believe in magic but he knew that some things could not be explained by science yet so he went along with magic. With the cube in hand, he was not afraid of anything coming his way except for Berserker. In his opinion, that servant was a monster while Henry’s Berserker looks like a thug in comparison.
Courtney was leading the team as she’s the most adventurous one among them. The difference in the Earths sparked her adventurous spirit, and she started going here and there, and everyone else was just along for the ride. Initially, Courtney wanted to fly around the city but Pat was against the idea since he couldn’t trust Courtney to stay out of trouble.
As they were walking around and window shopping, Henry kept conversing with Berserker to get to know the guy better while Caster was giving Joey advice on magic. They went around the city, and Courtney bought some souvenirs for her friends and family in Blue Valley. They mostly went window shopping, had their lunch, and went to the boardwalk near the pier.
The fresh air from the river reinvigorated Courtney’s spirit while Pat and Henry became depressed. Joey and Caster were enjoying some ice cream while Caster continues to teach Joey magic. “Hey, let’s stay here for a while. I want to enjoy the view and fresh air.” Courtney had stayed in Blue Valley for a while. She missed the life she had in the big city. It was not all that bad nor was it all that good, living in the city had its pros and cons.
Just as they were enjoying themselves, Caster and Berserker detected the presence of a servant. They could see a blond man writing in a notebook not too far from them. It was then that Caster and Berserker noticed the middle-eastern woman sitting beside him eating crepes. Caster and Berserker then moved in front of their masters and their friends, “Kid, the woman sitting beside the guy, she’s a servant.” Joey took a peek and saw the mana and aura she was exuding. She was exuding a lot of it.
“It seems that they’ve noticed us Scheherazade. Why don’t you entertain your fellow servants and their friends?” The blond-haired man closed his notebook, turned to the heroes, and smiled.
“Since you’re already here, why don’t you stay here and keep us company. Hopefully, we can enjoy each other’s company, at least until we make you stay here, permanently. I feel like this place could use a paint job. Your blood should do the trick.” As soon as he said that, all three servants changed back into their battle attire and readied their weapons, Berserker readied his axe while Caster readied her wand, and Scheherazade readied her magic staff.
Pat pressed the rune on his cube, “Courtney”, and he signalled Courtney to do the same. When they tossed the cube, STRIPE and the Star Staff were released. Pat climb into his robot while Courtney started twirling her staff when it came out. Just as they were about ready to fight, Oliver suddenly appears between them. He materialized a bow and arrow out of thin air and aimed it at the sky. “Arrow of my beginning, take us to the island once more.”
When Oliver released the arrow, a dome was created at the tip of the arrow and it encompassed the area around the servants and the masters. People started to surround the dome after its appearance and started taking pictures of it. “Whoa, what was that? Where are we?” Courtney was the first to react to the sudden change in the battlefield. Caster looked around and called out, “A Reality Marble. Is this your doing Ruler?”
Oliver reappeared once again, “Welcome heroes, masters, and servants. This Reality Marble is of my own creation. You will settle your battle in here. I will not allow you to start a battle in the outside world and endanger the lives of civilians. The Reality Marble will be undone when the servant from either side is completely defeated, or they yield. You can begin, and I will observe from the sidelines.” Once Oliver said this, he disappeared.
Courtney became impatient and went on the attack. Scheherazade blocks Courtney’s attack and pushed her away before waving her staff. “Appear before me my familiars”, when she did that, a dozen men were now standing with their backs to her. All of them have scimitars in their hands and were waving them around. The men that suddenly appeared have the appearance of bandits. Three of them attacked Courtney, while the other nine targeted STRIPE, Caster, and Berserker.
“Yaahaa, Let’s get this party started.” Berserker took three of them, while Caster created ice shards from the air and struck the three bandits that were approaching her. STRIPE tried to kick them but they were too agile and dodged his initial attack. Just as they were about to attack STRIPE, Henry used his telekinetic ability and threw one of the bandits into a tree. Joey used one of the basic spells that Caster taught him and made another bandit trip and fall to the ground. When the bandit fell, STRIPE stepped on him and crushed him.
Caster quickly disposed of the bandits attacking her using her magic. As soon as she finished defeating the familiars, Caster targeted the enemy Scheherazade. Caster released another barrage of ice shards except this time, her target is the enemy servant. Just as the shards were about to hit their target. Scheherazade was surrounded by a pillar of fire.
Seeing her initial attack on the enemy servant failed, Caster tried once more except this time, she blasts the ground with her wand and summoned large ice spikes from the ground. Just like before, just as the attack was about to touch her, a pillar of fire erupted around her, keeping her safe from the attack. Before Caster could launch another attack, Scheherazade pulled the ground from under her making her trip and fall. Caster was angry, “You dare let this queen suffer such humiliation. You will die, wench.”
Courtney had a bit of a hard time facing off against the three bandits. Whenever she attacked, one of them would block her while the other two tried to cut her. She was able to get a lucky hit on the second bandit but left an opening for the first and third bandit to attack. Just as their scimitars were about to cut her, the staff pulled her away from danger. When the first bandit came in again for another attack, she parried him and blasted the third bandit with her staff. The blast sent him flying into a nearby tree. The moment he hit the tree, he disintegrated. Courtney then jumps behind the second bandit and hits his head before blasting him. He disintegrated as he hit the ground. When the first bandit came running, Courtney just blasts him. He disintegrates as he hits the ground.
With Henry and Joey’s help, STRIPE was able to punch the bandit when Henry and Joey stopped him from moving. Berserker on the other hand had no problem when dealing with his three bandits. As soon as he parried their attack, he quickly uses his axe and swung it horizontally. He had separated their torsos from their legs. “Beat it small fries. I need a real challenge."
Scheherazade sneers under her veil, “So, you’ve managed to beat the dozen thieves I had sent out. How do you feel about another twenty-nine?” Scheherazade conjured another twenty nine familiars for the heroes to face. It was then that Joey remembered what Carter said about the enemy Caster’s identity. “Guys, I know who we’re up against. Remember what Carter said about the black Caster?” Courtney and Henry did not have a good answer. “Umm, I kinda wasn’t paying attention when he talked about it.” Pat was clearly dissatisfied.
“Damnit Courtney, you should pay more attention next time. I remembered it had something to do with the Arabian Nights fairy tales.” Pat gave his gist of Carter’s Lecture. Joey then continued, “Right, the Arabian Nights. We just fought twelve bandits and the Black Caster just brought out another twenty nine, which makes it a total of forty one. Any guesses to what that means.” Courtney and Henry did not answer. Joey continues “It means we’re dealing with Ali Baba and the forty thieves.” Henry interrupts, “Wait, you just said there’s forty one of these guys. There’re only forty thieves in that story.”
“You’re forgetting about Ali Baba himself. Which means the Black Caster is the person Carter said she was. The true name of the Black Caster is Queen Scheherazade. The storyteller of the Arabian Nights.” Joey made his deduction based on the clues throughout the fight.
