The journey to Fooruman’s fortress was made in complete silence. Everyone was too preoccupied with their own thoughts to even consider talking. After a thirty minute walk that seemed like hours, the fortress came into view. Spotty’s gasping broke the long period of radio silence. They had made it this far – now it was time for the hard part. Coppertop finally spoke. “All right,” she said, “how do we plan to get in without Fooruman knowing about it? He’s sure to have security of some sort.”

Faw pointed at a window on the southwest side of the fortress. “There. It’s low enough to the ground that we should be able to get through it without a lot of hassle, and I doubt Fooruman is monitoring all his windows. All we need to do is pop a small hole through the heat shield surrounding the fortress.”

Violet nodded in agreement. “Let’s do it.”

Everyone sprinted towards the castle until they reached the heat shield. Coppertop drew out her sword and smashed it into the heat shield. She made a neat circular opening and jumped through. The rest of the rebellion quickly did the same.

“All right,” Faw said, “there’s the window. Let’s get this over with.”

Fooruman laughed. “I do believe they’re going to try and infiltrate the fortress. As fun as that could be, I think I’ll just let Black Ninja take care of it; I’ve got bigger things to think about.”

Fooruman looked away from the proximity alert on his computer screen and looked back into his spell book. “First immortality, then I’ll wipe out this pathetic universe and create my own.” He laughed and closed the spell book. The front of the book read ‘Infusco Veneficus,’ roughly translated as ‘Blackest Magick.’ Fooruman looked at the musty old volume and laughed. “Actually, on second thought, I’m an all-powerful wizard. I’ll just put them back in their pathetic fortress where they belong.”

Fooruman opened up his spell book and flipped through the pages. “Ah,” he said, “a teleportation spell. This should do just fine.”

As soon as everyone had gotten through the window, a huge cloud of purple mist appeared, encompassing the entire room. Suddenly, a booming voice was heard, repeatedly chanting “Meus hostilis exsisto iacio tergum domus!” As quickly as the cloud had appeared, it disappeared. Then, in an instant, the rebellion found themselves back in portable #1, as if they’d never even set foot in Fooruman’s fortress. Violet cursed.

Spotty’s eyes suddenly changed to a pitch black color, and his voice changed to a deep, powerful tone. Although his mouth seemed to remain closed, he spoke. “As much as I’d enjoy finishing you fools off, I’m going to keep you under house arrest for a while. In a short twelve hours, I’m going to achieve immortality, as is my servant. As soon as we’re done with that, I’ll release you from your ‘fortress’ and let you march right on to your death. Until then, Spero vos intereo.”

Spotty immediately fell to the floor, choking. Everyone ran to his aid as quickly as possible – that is, everyone except Violet. Violet left for his chambers, closed the door, and began researching.

After she was convinced Spotty was ok, Coppertop walked towards the door and attempted to walk through it. She managed to get about halfway through before she was instantly hurled back into the portable.

Coppertop cursed. Spotty stood up slowly and shakily and decided it was time to state the obvious. “We’re screwed, aren’t we?”

Fooruman laughed and slammed his spell book shut. He reached quickly for his intercom and spoke into it with pure determination. “Black Ninja, meet me in the conference room in five minutes. It’s time to prepare for the ritual.”