█Dialogue- #9ac77d █ Thought- #33cccc█ Dialogue Nico: #cc3300█
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With quick light strides Val and Sophia inched closer to the lair that was a time capsule of her parents and grandfathers childhoods. The restaurant has been in the family for three generations now, but despite that and the decades that rolled by the Substation and the family lair was always, for the most part the same as it ever was and probably ever would be. Val watched from a distance as her cousin traced the outline of the lair door with her wand giving way to the hidden gem behind it. Val sauntered around the shop, weaving in and out of the subway cart that housed the more private booths. There were years worth of carvings and sketches on one of the tables on the wall. Things like Max was here, A&M Forever, and the formula for quadratic equation which Val safely assumed was the doing of her Uncle Justin. When the door was finally opened Val made her way behind Sophia into the lair and surveyed the room from her perch, leaned against the door frame.
"Wow, Uncle Max really hasn't changed this place..." Sophia spoke as she searched around the room for God knows what. Val watched as she rummaged through piles and stacks, every so often lifting a container or box that would posses what she came for. She grabbed at slender, rectangular boxes of all colors and sizes. The family wand... huh... Val smirked with a proud and smug look plastered all over her face. I knew my idea was genius.
"Well, don't just stand there, Val. Aren't you going to try to find things that could help us?" Val sighed deeply and pushed herself off of the door frame and sauntered over the middle of the room, choosing her point of attack carefully. Preparing for a tedious process Val pulled her hair up in a high messy bun with loose strands framing her face and exposing the greyish vitiligo patch on the hairs at the nape of her neck. Val reached for a miniature chest under set under the coffee table but as soon as she did a horrible screeching filled the room and seemed to be getting faster and more intense every few seconds.
"Soph what did you just do?" Val spoke as she snaked her neck around slowly to see what was happening behind her wishfully believing that if she somehow stayed calm the situation would rectify itself without any outside intervention. Sophie simply shrugged as she lobbed the box off on her that was now flashing on top of screeching incessantly.
"You know how you said you didn't want Nico to find us.....well, I might have accidentally triggered his spell lock....." Val tensed and shot Soph a scowl that could kill. Setting the box on the table Val flicked her fingers and pushed the air forcefully and spoke strongly, commanding her magic to bend effortlessly to her will.
"Silentium. Immediately the light vanished and the noise ceased. This was her strong suit, but despite this they would still caught absolutely red handed if they didn't make the hastiest exits of their life. "That's handled, but I'm sure he's already realized someones been tampering with his things. God, what kind of psycho booby traps their own house! Ugh, we've got to get the hell out of here" Quickly Val armed herself with her wand but before she could complete the spell to teleport back to Wiztech the door to the lair blew open as if the room had been caught momentarily in a gusty draft. The gust of air threw Val back full forced and landed her squarely on the floor with her wand tumbling halfway across the room.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Not so fast Valentine." Nico with a wry chuckle as he crossed the threshold into the lair and closed the door behind him. As he caught sight of Sophia his wry laugh turned a bit more boisterous. "Oh, this is rich, little miss headmaster is here too? The look on your Dad's face is going to be priceless when he hears about this."
"A. It's Val-en-TINA, and B. How'd you know it was me?" Val kept her eyes glued to Nico as she shot him daggers. She brushed herself off lightly before hopping to her feet and reaching for her wand but not before Nico used his to form a gust of wind that landed it squarely in his hand.
"You're the obvious culprit, this has Val written all over it in marquee lights. And, you won't need that, I'll just hold onto it for safe keeping. There's no way I'm letting you two get out of here before I can rat you out.
"Yeah, well you'll be surprised to know breaking in here wasn't even my idea." As soon as Val uttered the words she regretted it. She didn't mean to rat Sophia out, but damn if she didn't love proving Nico wrong. "And besides if you tell our parents you're going to regret it. And that's a promise by the way, not a threat. If you really think you have a chance in this competition you're delusional. If you help us get what we need we can all get what we want and go our separate ways after, like it never happened. Val watched with utter satisfaction as Nico visibly seemed to be trying to grasp the idea in his head. He was stumped but would never admit it. He doesn't know about the competition... that's no surprise he's such a hot head Uncle Max would probably tell Casey before Nicolas.
"See, you're lost without us Nico. The rules have changed all we all have to compete against each other to keep our powers, but Soph and I have a plan to make sure that doesn't happen, and we just need one thing that you know how to find. The family wand."