"I'm warning you! You try anything with me and you'll be sorry!" Kaitlin dared as she struggled against the dark bonds that bound her to the ploe in the middle of the wheel of the torture casino. "I'll tell my mom about this and you'll have waged an inter magical war and everyone will die and it will be all your fault!" Her bright blue eyes glared ferociously at Oogie and his three henchmen daring them to come closer to her. They seemed quite content to maintain a distance.
"Do you ever shut up?" Oogie asked rubbing his bug filled hands against what would have been his temples had he been in human form.
"No." Kaitlin retorted and began humming a song that might have been "Over the Rainbow" had it not been loud and off key.
"Can you do anything to make her shut up?" Oogie asked desperately looking at his three masked henchmen. They shook their heads.
"Look Mr. Oogie." the leader of the group, a girl who sounded about Lock's age, began. "We aren't stupid. Bound or not she's dangerous."
"You better believe it." Kaitlin added. Oogie glared at her with such ferocity that she silenced her mouth, but that didn't last to long. "I'm bored." Kaitlin said suddenly.
"You're a hostage, we don't make things comfortable for you!" Oogie snapped. He summoned up some of his Holiday Magic and hurled a fireball at Kaitlin using a mix of Thanksgiving and Independence Day magic. Kaitlin's eyes turned bright orange and the ball of fire turned into a group of butterflies whose wings were made of fire. These odd creations flew away with no harm to anyone.
"I will never get that spell right." Kaitlin complained slinking back against the pole and humming "Let the Sun Shine In".
"We did find out a bit about her history, turns out she's the daughter of one of the greatest Chaos witches ever to live. Unfortunately this witch married a mortal. The oldest daughter is her sister Kelly, a mortal. Apparently Kaitlin is the oldest of three identical triplets. Her sister Emily is at Hogwarts so she's no problem to us. The other sister is Vici and she's at Sky High so again we have no problem with her interfering." the girl in the green said. Kaitlin eyed her warily it seemed this talk of her family made her rather uncomfortable.
"When did you have time to find all of this?" Oogie asked surprised. The girl shrugged slightly and Oogie seemed to know better than to peruse with any further question. Kaitlin stopped her light hearted singing for a bit to let out a loud whistle as if she were calling some sort of dog and the fact that her sapphire eyes took on an orange tint made Oogie more then a bit suspicious. "Why did you do that? What did you summon?" Oogie demanded.
"Do what?" Kaitlin asked innocently her blue eyes magnified by the lenses of her glasses.
"Don't try me half witch!" Oogie spat getting close enough to splatter Kaitlin's face with bugs. "You know my magic will just cancel out yours."
"Is that a threat Bug Boy?" Kaitlin asked sounding offended. She yelped as Oogie slammed her into the pole holding his sack like hands around her throat.
"Listen you bratty little half witch, you are my hostage and you play by my rules! Any questions?" he asked his snake like tongue rattling only centimeters from her nose. Her bright eyes were widened and she looked as if she had finally gotten the picture so he dropped her again.
"Just one." Kaitlin said using her legs to get herself pack into a sitting position. "Have you ever thought of starting a rock band with Lord Voldemort and Darth Vader? Because I really think that would go over well with the fans."
"I'm going to kill her." Oogie grumbled as he stalked away. He was starting to wonder if holding her hostage was really worth the trouble.
*
"What exactly am I doing here?" Shade asked yawning widely. This was certainly starting to seem more like a dream to him then reality. He, Hally, Lock, Shock, and Barrel were standing outside Oogie Manor and actually planning to break in to rescue the leader of the mortal girls.
"Because Shade, you're the smartest kid in all of Halloween Town and we need someone who can tell us how to get around Oogie without any powers." Hally said as-a-matter-of-factly. Shade blinked his dark blue eyes still hazy from sleep since he had pretty much just woken up.
"And why are we doing this?" he asked. Hally let out a heavy sigh rolling her mismatches eyes in exasperation.
"I told you already, my dad won't take any direct action until we know everything about what happened. So we have to take on Oogie before he does anything to hurt Kaitlin, by the time daddy gets all of the proof it could be too late. It's my fault she got captured so I have to fix it." Hally said sounding rather determined with this plan.
"But we didn't get her captured so why are we here?" Lock asked. He brushed the dark crimson hair out of his dark green eyes looking around him with a sort if strange disbelief about why he was here at all, especially for this.
"You're the only ones who know the way around the manor." Hally said quickly. "Now come on." She hissed. She lead the group through the darkness up to the manor as close as she dared to go. Lock Shock and Barrel looked at each other and nodded. Shock touched the wall under the staircase and the door slid open.
"The way out is your problem." she added gesturing for Hally and Shade to go through the hall. "It leads right to the Casino. Oogie doesn't even know about this path." She assured them. Barrel and Lock pushed to blocks on either side and caused the path to light up with a strange greenish glow. "Come on guys, he'll recognize our work if he sees us."
"Your not coming?" Hally asked anxiously.
"Why would we? We didn't get her captured. Just follow the path you'll be fine." Lock said dismissively. The three siblings turned to go.
"Good luck." Barrel said quickly before he was dragged off by his siblings. Hally took a deep breath this was harder when she was human. She grabbed Shade by the wrist in his human state she need not worry about him being intangible to the touch. It was time to save Kaitlin.
*
"AND THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME YOU HEAR THE OOGIE SONG! WHOA OH! WOA OH! I'M THE OOGIE BOOGIE MAN!" Kaitlin sang as loudly as she could manage. She had spent the entire time making him miserable.
"CAN YOU STOP SINGING THAT SONG!?" He bellowed bugs spewing in every direction. Kaitlin didn't flinch, she fell quiet for a bit before picking up with a different song.
"IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL!" She began.
"SILENCE!" Oogie pounded his bug filled fists on the walls. He could not put up with this obnoxious witchling any longer. He had to get out of the room. He walked out of the casino without a word. He couldn't say anything without exploding from rage. He should just kill the girl after all his powers overwhelmed hers. It was her mother that stopped him, she was a legendary witch and Oogie wasn't stupid enough to get her angry.
"Hey guys." Kaitlin said as soon as Oogie left the room. Hally and Shade slipped inside unaware that Oogie's masked associates had not yet left. "Jump." Kaitlin called. Uncertainly both Hally and Shade leapt into the air as the smallest of Oogie's henchmen stomped upon the ground causing it to shake and tremble violently. Kaitlin had to focus all her strength on keeping them suspended until the shaking subsided. As soon as it did Hally and Shade fell to the ground and immediacy began working at untying the bonds of Darkness. Shade spotted one of the Casino lanterns that had fallen during the earthquake the youngest minion had caused.
"Kaitlin, can you make a shield wide enough for me to get that lantern?" Shade asked pointing to it and at the same time making sure that the three henchmen kept missing them with their spells. The shockwave girl and the wind controller kept trying to outdo each other and this competition made both their aim rather lousy.
"Yeah but not for long." Kaitlin warned. Her eyes turned bright orange and her hair flew out behind her. Suddenly they were surrounded by a large orange sphere. Shade quickly grabbed the lantern and scurried back as the shield vanished. He took out the still lit candle ducking behind the pole Kaitlin was tied to in order to avoid the wind controller. He held the fire up to the robes and shattered the darkness that created them. Apparently these people didn't have much faith in Kaitlin's magical ability if fire could destroy her bonds. Kaitlin jumped away from the pole the moment she was free at the same time the three henchmen blocked the ground doors. "The stairs!" Kaitlin called pointing at the stairs leading upward from the Casino. They really had no choice.
"This isn't a good idea, you know running up the stairs." Shade pointed out as they spiraled upward the three henchmen close behind. Kaitlin was in the lead almost pulling the two humanized Halloweenians behind her. Hally and Shade were not used to such physical labor and were tiring far earlier than the semi-human Kaitlin. "Dead end." Shade cried as Kaitlin skidded to a stop in front of a large window that was rather far off the ground. The stairs ended. "We're gonna die."
"Not yet." Kaitlin muttered. She ran to the window and jumped out pulling Hally and Shade behind her! Suddenly a broom swooped beneath them catching all three of them in mid air. Kaitlin was in front, Shade in the middle, and Hally on the back.
"You have a broom?" Hally asked excitedly as the broom extended itself to make the seating more comfortable as Kaitlin steered them through the dark night sky. "Like a witch from Halloween Town?" she knew that the brooms in Halloween Town were almost like pets. They had personalities and could be summoned by whistling.
"Yeah, I summoned it earlier on," Kaitlin replied. "Oogie got suspicious when I whistled for it but I managed to get him off track. Truthfully, I wasn't sure if that whole jumping out of the window thing would work."
"You weren't!?" Shade shouted sounding rather angry. "Those were our lives you were risking! As humans we could have died! You have to be sure about something before you plunge out of a window about ten stories up!"
"Actually, I'm still not sure this is going to work." Kaitlin replied. "I failed my fliers test three times and got kicked off the Quiddich team for bad flying. Well it's not the flying I have a problem with. I'm fine in the air. I just have trouble landing without crashing."
