I Am Totally a Real-Life Wizard (Not Clickbait, I Swear!)

Vendetta sighed. “Thanks. Now let’s hope Cody’s okay.”

The receptionist led them to a cell. “Here you go.”

The cell was small and none too clean. Cody was pacing diagonally across the cell, frowning and muttering, but he stopped when he saw the siblings.

"Cody! Let's get you out of here."

"Wait! No, it's a--"

Sparkles filled the air and Valeri gagged as a sickly-sweet smell entered her nostrils. And then they blacked out.

Vendetta choked for a moment before collapsing as well.

Dusk and Dawn had the benefit of having no lungs, and were thus unaffected. “Cody! What was that?”

"A trap." Cody looked grim. "He should be here any second now--"

"Mwahahaha!" A large hologram of a face popped up in the air, right in front of the weapons. The face smirked. "Hah, just kidding. I don't do stereotypical evil laughs. Besides, I'm the good guy here. What do good guy laughs sound like?"

"Joe," Dusk seethed.

"Indeed, 'tis I." Joe did a head-nod and grinned at the weapons.

Dawn groaned. “Can you just leave us alone?”

Joe snickered. “Oh I can, right after I-“ He paused. “What’s the opposite of an invitation? An outvitaion?”

Dusk glowed menacingly. “Get on with it!”

"Well, you see, all of you have just been caught red-handed trying to break a known criminal out of jail." Joe smirked knowingly.

"You're the criminal here!" Dawn glowed a fierce orange.

"Oh, is that so? Shall we see what the public thinks?"

Dawn huffed. “We weren’t even trying to break him out of prison! We were just visiting. Vendetta even made cookies.”

Joe scowled. “Oh, I don’t believe that.”

The nefarious wizard looked off to the side. "Rewind, please."

A small rectangle popped up next to Joe, showing miniature versions of Valeri and Vendetta in front of the jail cell. "Cody! Let's get you out of here," hologram-Valeri said.

Joe sniffed. "See? Prison break."

Valeri groaned.

"Maybe they just have bail money, Joe. One would think a criminal knows more about the prison system." Cody crossed his arms.

Dusk nodded. "That's it! Yeah."

Joe frowned. "Malacoda's the only criminal here, at least for now. I'm afraid I have to interrogate you all--"

Suddenly he turned his head to the side, as if listening to someone else. When he turned back to the group, he had an unsettling smile on his face. "Ah, but I suppose that shall have to wait until later. I'm afraid I have an important event right now." Joe ran a hand over his hair. "How do I look? Fabulous, I'm sure." The sketchy wizard smirked. "If you'd like to send a congratulatory gift after all this is over, we plan to honeymoon in Hawaii. Now then, toodles!"

And with a flurry of sparkles, Joe's hologram was gone.

Cody quickly flushed with rage. "Oh. Oh, HELL NO!" Cody smashed his fist into the bars, immediately wincing in pain and regret. "Not Khalil. Please not xem. Not again.'

Dawn flashed red-orange. "Joe's marrying Khalil? No way. Khalil would never--"

"The love potion." Dusk seemed to sag in the air.

Vendetta stirred on the ground before finally waking up, groggily sitting up. "Ugh, what happened?"

Dawn sunk. "Sob. Joe gave Khalil the love potion. Sob!"

"Tears... Shocked face... This is such a disaster I can't even express it in words." Dawn glowed a dirty pink.

Valeri groaned again and slowly opened their eyes. "What's the disaster?"

"Joe's making Khalil marry him!" Dusk twirled frustratedly in the air.

Vendetta flinched. "WHAT? We have to stop him!"

Dawn collapsed to the ground. "How? Cody's in prison, Joe's blacklisted our existence, and Khalil- Khalil-" They went back to mumbling "sob" to themself.