84 83. «Magic for Dummies» & End of Dr. Animo
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July 14, 2010.
- So what do you end up thinking about this? - I asked Grandfather, sitting down next to him.
- What are you talking about? — looking at the road, asked Max.
- About Mr. Grandsmith and Aunt Vera. Do you mind if they get together? - I asked.
- Not. Donovan is a good man and hasn't changed at all in all these years. And Vera has been single for too long. - Grandpa said honestly.
- And your brother's instinct to protect your sister has nothing against it? - I asked with a grin.
- Ha ha ha, no. No, of course not. I outgrew this a long time ago. Vera is an adult and independent woman, so it is up to her to decide with whom to be and how to live. Although, I've been worried about her since Viktor died. - Grandfather said with a laugh, remembering the dead husband of Aunt Vera.
- She must be lonely in that desert town. And Mr. Grandsmith also looks like a lonely person. Hope everything goes well for them. - I said, remembering old Donovan's happy face when Grandpa gave him Aunt Vera's number before we left.
It's been an hour since we left Miami and moved on. We decided not to linger in the city, we already had enough beaches and water activities.
In addition, Max noticed an advertisement for today's alligator festival, which will be held in the swamps near the state capital, Tallahassee.
Grandpa suddenly got excited about the idea of visiting this place, so the girls and I decided not to say anything and just let the old man have some fun.
The alligator festival is practically no different from a regular festival, except for the theme and the main symbol in the form of, as you know, alligators.
All the same stalls with delicious food, though with the meat of the alligators themselves, entertainment, games, music and so on. What stands out from the usual picture is the presence of live alligators. I don't think it's such a bad place.
The only problem, according to the canon, is that Dr. Animo has to show up to mess things up like always, but I'll try to find and take care of him before he messes up. At this rate, he will never become a full-fledged villain, since I always stop him in advance. Although, don't care.
We still have almost four hours to go, so I decided to mind my own business. I took out the book on Magic that I received from Hope and began to read it. What is strange is that it is written in modern English, although the book itself is clearly ancient. Even Hope's mother grimoire was written in Old French, although there was a translation.
Having quickly finished reading, and having completely memorized the contents, I handed the book to Gwen, who had been staring at the back of my head for the past half hour and was impatiently waiting for her turn to come. After accepting the book, Gwen gave me a quick peck on the cheek until Max could see, and ran off to get new knowledge of Magic.
Since the incident with Hope, our relationship has been a little off and I've distanced myself from the girls. Even though what happened was not my fault, I still can't just forget that I betrayed my beloved girls and broke the promises I made to them. Until things are decided and the girls know the truth, I don't think I can pretend everything is okay.
I think Gwen and Ashley have already figured out that something is wrong. They don't know what's going on, but they see me acting aloof and give me some time alone so I can think things through. Smart girls, I love them.
To be honest, I'm just afraid of their reaction when they find out about Hope. But I can't hide everything forever. It remains only to go with the flow and hope that they will forgive me.
Putting aside all these sad thoughts, I focused on the knowledge gained from the book «Magic for Dummies». The title is very appropriate. Almost anyone can learn magic from this book, unless of course he has Mana.
Everything is written very clearly and in detail, it is immediately clear that the author knows his business. Unfortunately, most of the knowledge just doesn't fit Gwen and me, since we're Anodites. The book was created specifically for ordinary users of Magic who are just beginning to learn magic.
But we, representatives of an advanced magical race, who simply do not need to awaken their magic, learn to control it or increase the amount of Mana. Even now, Gwen and I have way more Mana than most magician in the world. At the very least, the methods described in the book are too low-level for us.
Apparently, when I told Hope that Gwen and I were still newbies, she didn't take our heritage into account and took my words at face value for giving me a book for complete beginners.
It was informative reading, but the only valuable thing in it was a list of hundreds of spells of various kinds, mostly elemental. In general, this is exactly what we needed, so it was not in vain.
Frankly, unlike Gwen, I have little interest in conventional magic, since my aliens give me much more than simple spells, and I am quite satisfied with the usual Anodite abilities, which, in general, I have already raised to the absolute.
What I'm really interested in is the unique rituals and spells that give me the ability to do things that my heroes can't. For example, that spell from the Archamada Book, which allows to move along the time axes.
And I still found several such spells and rituals. For example, in the book, there was a body-swapping ritual that Hope used in the original. And the teleportation spell Hex used to fight the girls.
It turned out that it is more suitable for moving a large number of people, just something that the Two-Tails cannot do. There is also a ritual to create magical creatures similar to those used by Hope. And that's not all.
What I found most interesting was a spell similar to the «Reparo» from Harry Potter, which allows you to repair recently broken things and restore damage on a large scale. It will be especially useful in heroic work.
After my disassembly, there is always damage. Remember only the fight with Vulcanus and Six-Six in Pittsburgh, or the battle of the girls with Hex. Now, I can fix everything and walk away with peace of mind without leaving millions of dollars worth of damage in my wake.
I immediately learned this spell and even tested it on my jacket, which was damaged by the Keystone explosion.
– Restitutio Damnorum. - I said, creating a magic sphere that engulfed the jacket and returned it to its previous state.
- It worked. - said Ashley, who was standing next to me and watching my actions.
- Yes, it looks like it. - I said with a smile, imagining what prospects open up with this spell.
Also, I was extremely pleased that I was able to recover Gwen's gift. I even managed to become attached to this jacket and I was sorry to lose it.
- Eh… Too bad I can't use magic. - Ashley said sadly.
- Maybe not now, but in the future… - I began.
- What do you mean? - Ashley asked incredulously.
- You are capable of absorbing energy. Any energy. In the future, when you fully learn to control your powers, you will be able to absorb Mana directly from the environment, since Mana is everywhere. It is, after all, the life force of the universe. - I told my idea.
- And then, will I be able to use the absorbed Mana for magic? - Ashley asked excitedly.
- Right. It won't be easy to learn though, but I'm sure you can handle it. - I said, stroking the girl on the head.
- When do we start training so I can learn how to absorb energy safely? I have already fully mastered the full cover. Look. - Ashley said, and after absorbing the wood from the countertop, she turned into a wooden Ashley.
- Practice for a few more days, and then we'll get started. I have an idea how to completely protect your mind from the negative influence of your powers, so maybe things will turn out to be much easier than we originally thought. - I said, thinking of a good option.
- Truth? Thank you. I will train even harder. - Ashley said and kissed me on the cheek, after which she went about her business.
It was clear from her eyes that she wanted to talk more, but she decided to leave me alone, because she knows that I need it now. I urgently need to solve this unpleasant problem and finally return to normal relations. The feeling of guilt haunts me.
Putting these thoughts aside again, I decided to learn all the spells that were in the new magic book. Even the ones that don't interest me at all. I may not use them, but it's always good to have a backup option in case of an emergency. There have already been cases when I could not use the Omnitrix, so these spells will not interfere. Anyway, there is nothing complicated about it.
When I was done, we still had an hour to go, so I decided to get my hands on some of the promise I made to Gwen.
Quickly moving to the Cave, I took some of the debris from the Vilkags robots that I took after the battle on Mount Rushmore, after which I returned to the RV and began to invent.
It's been a long time since I've done it myself, without the help of aliens, so it's good practice. I wanted to make a new laptop that I promised Gwen a long time ago. At the same time I will make the same for Ashley, so that she will not be offended.
It turned out to be surprisingly easy and I did it in less than 20 minutes. This appears to be the result of the increased intelligence and influence of Juryrigg. I used this alien quite a lot when I was dismantling the ship on Mars, so I most likely adopted some of his engineering skills. Such a good bonus.
Although the laptops ended up not being very pretty since I used the debris, a little help from Upgrade helped fix that and now the computers look just fine. They are exactly the same as mine, except that the design is different.
Since there was still time, I created several smartphones, three for my family and the rest for my clones, in case we need to contact. When I distributed gifts to the family and received thanks, I thought it would be worthwhile to create small communicators for constant communication with clones.
Which I did, and then proceeded to create a pair of drones that would act as my eyes and ears when I needed reconnaissance. I will always have them with me and, if necessary, I will take them out of my inventory and send them in search.
They will be just right for me today to find Animo in these swamps, since I'm not going to look for him myself. There is nothing else for me to do.
I finished, just in time for the moment when we arrived at the festival. Immediately sending drones to search, I went to have fun with my family.
***
*Several hours later*
The drones returned only when they had explored the entire swamp, and we were tired of exploring the festival.
It turned out that Animo was simply not here. The drones even found the place where the Doctor was hiding in canon, but it is empty and there is no sign that anyone has been there in the last 10 years.
- I don't understand anything. Morgana, look up Aloysius Animo in the police database. - I ordered Morgana, having received the result of the search.
- [Wait a second… I found it. Aloysius James Animo was arrested on June 3 for assaulting his landlord and vandalizing a mall. Upon his arrest, he was diagnosed with a severe head injury that led to retrograde amnesia. He forgot the last five years of his life. As a result, taking into account his situation, he was given a suspended sentence and forbidden to leave the city for 5 years. He is now in St. Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment and slowly recovering.] - Moragana told me.
- Oh, f**k... - was all I could say, and then I asked myself. - So I broke Dr. Animo? Now he does not remember his crazy experiments and knowledge gained?
'And now what i can do? Cure him? Or leave it alone? Perhaps this is Animo's chance to return to normal. Although, it also means that I lost one of my sworn enemies. It doesn't make me hot or cold though.' - Now to myself, I thought.
- Tex, come here. The supper is ready. - Grandpa called to me as he finished cooking the alligator skewers.
- I'm going, Grandpa. - I said as I got off the bus.
'Well, if it's the way it is, let it stay that way. Dr. Animo is not such a bad person, he just got unlucky in life. I think he deserves a new start.' - I thought again, and then I gave Morgana an order: - Check on Aloysius Animo from time to time. If something happens, let me know right away.
- [Yes, my love.] - Morgana said coquettishly.
- It won't hurt to see how his life goes on. Maybe it's not over yet and we'll meet again. Who knows. – involuntarily looking at the sky, I expressed my thoughts aloud and went to my beloved family.
