S1E2 The Archmage Returns
COLD OPEN
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
"I still don't believe it." Amos had just explained to Tom that he was the new Archmage, whatever that is.
"And after that," Amos wasn't gonna stop to explain. "I stopped this woman from getting mugged. So I guess I'm a superhero too."
Tom just looked at Amos. He was sitting at his desk with his PC on and working on some kind of website building tool. The dorm itself was about the size of a simple bedroom. With two twin sized beds and two desks. Amos was also holding The Knotted Staff in his hand.
"And how does all this tie into that?" Tom pointed at his computer.
"Oh," Amos put the staff down for a while. "I'm building a website so I can help people with their supernatural problems." Amos got back to work on the website. "Kinda like the Ghostbusters."
"Ha." Tom laughed as he got back to his collage on his Mac. ""No one'll ever use it."
"Just you wait, Tom." Amos sported an arrogant grin. "They'll come."
In a converted warehouse, the only noise that pierced the darkness was the ruffling of pages as Owen Stanley drove through his books with one objective in mind.
"The Archmage..." He growled as he gave up on books and turned to his computer. After a quick web search he had found just what he was looking for.
The Theme Song, a glorious merging of John Williams and Ron Wasserman, plays.
ARCHMAGE
Created by Seth Campbell
THE ARCHMAGE RETURNS
Written by Seth Campbell
PART ONE
Back at their dorm; Amos, now done with his website, was explaining the finer points of magic to Tom.
"It's all about your perception." Amos didn't see any harm in giving Tom a crash course.
"So then all your magic's a complete mishmash of pretentious idiocy." Amos just rolled his eyes as a ding came from his computer. "What was that?" Tom was now curious as Amos checked what was up.
"The website got a hit." Neither Amos nor Tom could believe that.
"That fast?" Amos was copying down the address onto a slip of paper.
"Some guy on the island has a poltergeist in his bedroom." Amos lept from his chair and rushed into his closet with a wad of clothes in tow.
After a few thumps and bumps' Amos exited now clad in a costume consisting of: A long-sleeved white shirt, a gray vest, black pants, black boots, a burgundy cloak, and Red Baron goggles to hide his identity.
"Whad'ya think?" Tom just stared at Amos.
"I'm divided between making a 'coming out of the closet' joke or just that you look ridiculous." Amos just lowered his eyebrows in dissapointment.
"Ha ha." Amos grabbed his staff, jumped out of the window, and was off. (cloaking himself from view as he sped off into the distance)
Over out on Anastasia Island, Amos was looking around a Spanish style bedroom. While he quietly observed his surroundings, a man entered.
"So, have you done this kind of thing before?" Amos briefly stopped looking to address the man.
"Nope," Amos got back to work. "You're my very first client."
"Well," The man's sense of dread dissipated for but a moment. "It's mostly around the bed." He slowly crept away from the bed as he talked. "I've been hearing things, seeing things, and I was attacked last night. Now I don't know how you intend to stop that thing, but I want it gone and out of my life."
As the man was giving his speech, Amos approached the bed. He could almost hear what seemed to be the whispers of children from inside the mattress. Amos was intriegued and slowly lowered his staff towards the bed.
The exact moment the tip of his staff touched the surface of the bed, a grid-like force field encircled the bed and Amos was flung backwards, hitting the wall head first.
"Yeah," the man looked down at Amos, now rubbing his head. "I can tell this is your first time."
Amos once again lowered his eyebrows un unamusement as he got back up. "I'm gonna need some time alone. Could you wait in the living room?"
The man nodded and retired to his living room while Amos started making his way back towards the bed.
"So," Amos crinked his neck. "You might be wonderin' if I'm even a threat." He gripped his staff tight as he held it up. "But seeing as this here staff is the tool of the Archmage, you should instead be wonderin' if you feel lucky..." Amos tworled the staff a couple times before holding it vertically.
"Do you...? Punk?!"
Amos immediately thrust his staff into the bed, completely obliterating the force field and releasing the poltergeist. It resembled a tiny imp wearing a silly hat. Before he could fully process how absurd the thing looked, the poltergeist socked Amos right in the face and he returned the favor by wacking it with his staff.
Before Amos could regain his footing, the poltergeist began throwing whatever it could find at him. But Amos was able to repeatedly dodge most of the projectiles and deflect the rest with his staff.
Almost instinctively, Amos thrust out his hand and bright blue, almost white, tendrils of energy emitted from his fingertips and wove themselves into a rope that shot out directly at the poltergeist. In less than a full second, Amos had the poltergeist right where he wanted.
The poltergeist struggled while Amos dragged it to a window he opened. The ropes dissapated as Amos lifted it by its neck and held it next to the window with one hand and the staff with his other hand.
"Batter up!" Amos tossed the poltergeist into the air and before it could regain its equilibrium, Amos shot it out of the window and the house like a baseball.
"Is it over?" The man reentered his bedroom while Amos closed the window.
"Yup." The man took a good look around.
"And the place is still standing."
"Yup," Amos pulled a pocketbook and pen out from the inside of his vest. "So with this being my first time and since I like ya, I'm gonna put you down for say... seventy-five?"
"Sure!" The man immediately pulled out his wallet. "I remember your website said cash only." He counted up seventy-five dollars and gave it to Amos.
"Thank you good sir." Amos put the money away with his notepad. "And be sure to tell your friends." With that, Amos headed back to his dorm.
PART TWO
Amos, again cloaked, made his way down Cedar Street until he reached his dorm. (in the creatively named Cedar Hall) He entered the parking lot and immediately started to feel an eerie presence. He looked around, still cloaked, but saw nothing that could have set it off. He shrugged it off and became visible again right before leaping upwards through a window directly into his second floor dorm room.
Once inside, Amos took off his goggles, they were starting to hurt. Just as he was about to close the window, he felt the exact same presence again. He looked out the window but again could see nothing that would set it off. He once again shrugged it off as nothing and slamed the window shut, not realizing that he had been seen. And that the person who was watching him was now long gone.
Later that day, Amos was plowing through Flagler hall on his way to his next class. Navigating through the other students, he eventually found himself face to face with Ellen.
"Oh!" Amos put the brakes on his forward drive for the time being. "Hey Ellen."
"Hey Amos." They both just looked in the general direction of each other for a while before...
"Do you wanna go out sometime?" Amos just blurted it out without fully realizing what he was saying.
"Sure." Amos couldn't believe what he was hearing. She said yes.
"Great!" Amos quickly tried to come up with a time and a place. "Seven thirty at Athena's?"
"I'll be there." Amos just watched in shock as Ellen walked off to her next class. He then realized that he needed to get to class as well and was off, again not paying any mind to the presence he felt.
As Amos and Ellen headed off, the same man that watched Amos at the dorm watched the two go their separate ways.
Once again back at their dorm room, Tom was working on an art project while Amos delighted himself with glowing fascimilies of people dancing in his hand.
"Hey Tom," Amos did away with the fake illusions and turned to face Tom. "Am I doing the right thing?"
"Doing what?"
"Everything." Amos couldn't put into words what he was feeling.
"I don't know." Tom put the sarcasm aside for once. "You'll probably have to find out on your own." Tom was just as confused as Amos. "If anything, I feel you're on the right track."
"Thanks," Amos sighed out a warm smile. "I needed that." Tom got back to his project while Amos began creating a miniature of the Battle of the Barricade.
"Oh, and by the way." Amos got Tom's attention again. "I'm going on a date with Ellen, tonight."
"Sweet." Tom nodded in assurance. "Just make sure not to be weird."
Later that day in the women's dorms, Ellen was heading down the hallway to her own dorm room. Her room was just past a small section of hall where the lights had broken.
Just around a corner in the dark section of the hall, the same man who had been following Amos that day was waiting for her to pass by.
And just as she walked past him. He rushed up behind her and with surgical precision, pressed a wet rag against her face before dragging her now unconscious body off into the darkness.
PART THREE
That night, Amos was sitting at a booth at Athena's. He looked around as a waitress approached him.
"Ready to order yet?" She held up her notepad and a pencil, ready to take down an order.
"No, still waiting." Amos looked up at the clock, it read eight O'clock. Ellen had supposed to have been there at least thirty minutes ago. The waitress headed off to patronize another customer as Amos looked down at the table.
While Amos was in quiet desperation, a very familiar man dressed as a busboy made his way past Amos and with a slip of the wrist, placed a small scroll in front of his lowered head and kept his course.
Amos quickly noticed the newfound presence of a scroll and picked himself back up. He immediately gave the place a once-over but the man was nowhere to be found. He got back to the scroll with unease.
Archmage,
I possess your girlfriend.
If you desire to see her live,
Go to the crossing of Masters Dr. and SR 16.
And give the Knotted Staff to me.
Amos crunched up the scroll in his hand, got up, and stormed out of the restaraunt.
At the converted warehouse, Owen paced around a tied up Ellen when Amos suddenly barged in sans staff.
"Ellen!" Amos saw what was going on and at that moment took in just how cliché this all was.
"Where is the staff?" Owen got straight down to business. "Remember the deal, Archmage: The staff for your girlfriend."
"Well, the thing is," Amos began. "She's not my girlfriend."
"What?"
"What?" Both Owen and Ellen were taken back by this.
"Hey," Amos turned to Ellen. "You're beautiful and I'm sure you're a wonderful person. But we haven't even gone out yet. Not unless you want to count this."
"Stop stalling!" Owen cut their conversation short pretty quickly. "Now, hand over the Knotted Staff! Do you even have it?!"
"Oh, I have it." Amos smiled as he pulled out a small wooden recorder. After twirling it, it glowed and grew until it was now the Knotted Staff. And with a swoosh across his front, Amos's clothes also changed into his cloaked costume.
"Cool costume." Amos gave Ellen a nod of thanks.
"Thanks." Amos didn't have any more time to make small talk as he instinctively dodged an unexpected blast of energy from Owen, losing his staff in the process.
"Shut up and just die." Owen raised his hand and a rapier materialized in his grasp. He immediately lunged at Amos, who in the nick of time blocked the attack by summoning an invisible sword the way he remembered.
The two blades met with a very loud clang. Owen pulled himself back quickly to reasses the situation while Amos regained his footing.
"Well then," Owen held his sword with one hand pointed directly at Amos. "En garde."
Amos held his sword in the same position as Owen, except with both hands. Deciding it was now or never, Amos made the first move. With that, the fight began.
They fenced all across the parts of the warehouse that remained unconverted. Both at many times were on the offensive and defensive alike. Throughout the entire battle, the urn sat on a table, seeming to be watching them.
After God knows how long, Amos was able to take the offensive and drive forward forcing Owen closer and closer to the ledge droping off into an open dumpster filled with shredded papers. With one final lunge, Amos kicked him over the ledge and into the dumpster.
Amos took a great sigh of relief and allowed his sword to dissapate. But just as he began to turn around towards Ellen, Owen flew out from the dumpster, sword still in hand, directly at Amos.
Amos suddenly twisted back around and his staff flew across the building and into his hand in just enough time for him to Smack Owen right in the face with it, knocking him out. As Owen hit the ground, his blade dissapated as well.
Amos dragged Owen's now unconscious body to a support beam and used his magic rope to restrain him. After making sure that Owen wasn't going anywhere, Amos turned his attention to Ellen.
"I'm so sorry for dragging you into all this..." Amos struggled to find a word. "Weird." He thrust his hand downwards against the ropes and before he was all the way diown, the ropes were cut and Ellen was free.
"It's okay." Ellen gave Amos a glance of reassurance and they headed off, bumping into the table on the way out. The urn wobbled for a while before falling off of the table, hitting the floor, and breaking open.
The next day out in the college courtyard, Ellen headed out of the main building and almost immediately saw Amos enterint the campus from King Street. Ellen slipped into one of the two terraces that straddled the sides of the courtyard and headed for the front of the campus.
Just as Amos passed the side terraces, Ellen quickly grabbed him and yanked him inside.
"Ellen?!" Amos wasn't expecting her.
"Hey," Ellen let him go. "I won't tell anyone about... <i>it</i>."
"Thanks," Amos still felt guilty that she had to be in that position to begin with. "I'm terribly sorry for dragging you into all this."
"It's okay." They gave each other a small smile.
"I don't think I'm ready for a relationship right now." Amos cut his smile dead in his tracks. "Not with the risks."
"Well," Ellen's smile didn't go anywhere. "Wanna still be friends?" Amos almost seemed to contemplate.
"Sure!" Amos's energy was interrupted by his cell phone beeping. He checked it before closing it, sporting a massive smile.
"What up?" Amos put his cell phone back in his pocket.
"My web site got another hit." He turned around to head off. He starts heading back out of campus. "I'll be back in an hour." And he was off.
Back at the warehouse, the police were all over the place putting things in bags. One knelt down to pick up part of the urn. As he lifted it, ashes began to fall out. Unbeknowest to him, some of the ashes evaporated into a small black cloud with tiny red glowing eyes.
"A...mos..."
THE END