Chapter Text
There wasn't much meaning in life until magic came along. At least not for Marvin.
Marvin Mannix. That's his name. Really Marvin McMagicspell, but nobody knows that and nobody can prove that without revealing everything. But that's okay. It has to stay secret anyway. Secret to everyone. Everyone, that is, except the Magic Makers.
The Magic Makers. That's what they call themselves. Four magically empowered teenagers. And one talking pigeon.
First there's Marvin, the one who started it all. Then there's his best friend, Kirk Hunter, and Kirk's sister, Annette Hunter. And there's Courtney Mancina, Annette's best friend. And, the talking attic bird, Abey. The Magic Makers.
It all started when Marvin's grandfather, Mark Mannix, died of a heart attack. Or at least they said it was a heart attack. Marvin and Abey both knew that it was not natural causes that put Mark to rest, but rather the cunning of his witch stepsister, Marissa.
Why did she kill him you ask? Simple. She wanted the magic. The great McMagicspell magic kept safely up in the attic of Mark's house. The McMagicspell Book of Phenomena with all the magic spells in it. The magic ingredients that covered the shelves on the walls all around the attic. The silver box which contained the five powerful magic necklaces. She wanted those things. She wanted them bad.
Back then Marvin lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia. But then, after Grandpa Mark died, Marvin and his parents, Martin and Margo, moved away from Fredericksburg and into Mark's house in Baltimore, Maryland.
And because of this, the magic remained safe from Marissa.
At least for a while.
Marissa stuck around, and when she found out that Marvin had been using the magic, and when she saw what sorts of things she could do with it if she had it, she went for it.
It would have been a disaster had it not been for the Magic Makers' magic powers. Marissa bewitched them, and tied them up. And then, when she conjured up a portal to another dimension, a dimension that she planned to send her bound prisoners to, they thought it was all over. However, they managed to outsmart Marissa, and she ended up sent away to the dimension herself. But she vowed that she would return. And that was why the Magic Makers needed to stay together. They knew what sort of things Marissa could do and they were pretty aware of how important it was to have powers to protect themselves.
Besides, having powers was just plain cool.
Each of the Magic Makers has a different power. Marvin has the power of psychokinesis, or PK. What that is is the ability to influence objects beyond one's reach and produce movement in the objects. In other words, you look at something and make it move. Pretty basic, but also powerful.
Kirk has the power to freeze time. He can literally make the entire earth stop with just a touch of the wrists. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? It seems like a person with that power can do anything But it, like all of their powers, has limits.
Courtney? She has the power to make herself invisible. And Annette is the one with the power to levitate. She can make herself weightless and float in the air. It's difficult to control, though. But, she was told that with time and practice, her powers would grow. All of theirs would.
Which was why it was important that they all met together that evening.
* * *
"Marvin!"
"Yes? What is it?"
"Maarvvvinnnnn!!!!
"What? I hear you! What do you want?”
"The fifth necklace, Marvin."
"Yeah? What about the fifth necklace?"
"You must give..."
"I must what?"
"You must give the fifth necklace..."
"Yes? Go on."
"You must give the fifth necklace to--"
* * *
"Surprise surprise!"
Marvin opened his eyes.
"Aaahh!"
"Whoa! Marvin, man! You need a breath mint!”
Marvin was outside of his house, on the front porch. He was laying down on the porch swing, and Courtney was leaning down over him, with Kirk and Annette standing next to her. The night was dark, but the light of the full moon that hung overhead was just enough for him to see his friends.
"What are you guys doing here?" Marvin asked.
"Hello?" Courtney said, straightening up. "You told us to get here before midnight."
Marvin sat up and glanced at his wristwatch. It was 11:55. Just five minutes until midnight. Marvin had been waiting for his friends out on the front porch, but had fallen asleep. And, he had been having the dream again.
In his dream, a voice seemed to call out to him, and it kept saying something about the fifth necklace. He had had the dream a few times before, and each time, it ended before he had a chance to make sense of it. It was starting to get on his nerves.
"Right" Marvin rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Right. Sorry. Come on.” Marvin got up and led his three friends into the house.
"So, what are we supposed to do?" Annette whispered as they stood there in the dark foyer.
"You don't need to whisper," Marvin said. "My parents are fast asleep. They won't hear you.”
"But they could wake up if we're too loud," Kirk reasoned.
"Nah." Marvin turned on the lights. "I slipped 'em a little Pepper of Sleep. They'll be out until sunrise."
“Sunrise?” Annette said. "I thought Pepper of Sleep wore off when you splashed water on their face.”
"It does, but Abey showed me how to make a new formula of pepper that lasts until sunrise, or until they get a water splash, whichever comes first."
"So now what?" Kirk asked.
"I guess we should go up to the attic," Marvin suggested. "Abey will probably want to see this."
Marvin, Kirk, and Courtney began to walk up the stairs to the second level. Annette didn't. She floated up, alongside the staircase.
"Hey, look everyone," Courtney joked. "It's Mary Poppins."
"Hey, I like levitating." Annette defended herself once she had reached the top and pulled herself over the side rail. "Besides, I don't have a two-story house like you, Marvin.”
"I didn't say anything." Marvin said.
"Yeah you did," Courtney said. "You just said 'anything' in that last sentence."
"Anyways,” Kirk mused.
"Let's do this already." Marvin insisted.
The kids went into Marvin's room. There was nothing really special about it, just an ordinary bedroom. The floor was wooden, the walls were papered, and the ceiling was high enough that you couldn't touch it if you jumped. There was a bookcase here, a bed there, a desk here, a dresser there, nothing special.
It was what was behind all of it that was so special
Marvin raised his hand towards the farthest wall, and said, "Appear." Suddenly, where before there was only blank wall, a door appeared. It just appeared out of nowhere, not there one second, there the next.
"That is so cool." Courtney said.
It was a rather homely door. It had a big, round hole in it, and a purple "M" painted on it below the hole, and its doorknob was missing.
The Magic Makers entered the corridor concealed behind the door and followed the corridor to a small set of stairs which led up to the attic. They opened the attic's door and went inside. And there it was. The magic. Every magic item that had been passed down from one McMagicspell to another for many generations was all there, in the attic.
Abey was there too, perched high up on one of the attic's rafters, fast asleep.
"Wake up, Abey," Marvin said, turning on the lights.
Abey's eyes fluttered open. "Huh? What? Oh, hi Marvin," he said groggily. "Hi guys. Long time no see."
Abey yawned. It was actually kinda cute seeing a pigeon yawn. It didn't seem like something a pigeon would do. But Abey was not just any pigeon. Ever since Grandpa Mark had put a spell on him that gave him the ability to speak, he had seemed a lot more human than fowl.
"How much longer?" Annette inquired.
Marvin checked his watch. "Just a minute and a half."
"Okay, guys," Kirk said. "Get ready."
Nearly midnight on a full moon. Not just any ordinary get-together. It was re-transferring time.