After dinner, while Melinda was out shopping with Annie, Coulson hurriedly used the emergency equipment in the S.H.I.E.L.D. SUV to report to Nick Fury. But he noticed that the director on the video feed didn't look too happy.
Director Nick Fury was sitting in a bathtub, looking displeased. His dark upper body and head were covered in suds, and his one remaining good eye was fixed sharply on the communicator.
"Coulson, you know, I haven't been very happy with your performance lately... very unhappy!"
Nick Fury had finally found time for a bath after work and was enjoying a soak when the emergency communicator started ringing. He'd hurriedly opened it without bothering to get dressed, only to find that the person on the other end was Coulson again!
That bastard! Was he going out of his way to annoy him? Or had something especially urgent happened? Had that little girl burned down the city? Or blown up the Earth? Why else would he use the emergency line?
"Um, Director! There's something I'd like to report to you. I can't handle it without your approval." Coulson wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He knew the director on the other end was on the verge of exploding.
"Go on!"
Nick Fury decided not to waste any more time talking to the bastard. His anger had clouded his judgment, and if it wasn't something important, he'd make Coulson regret it!
"Um, well... after dinner, we suggested that Annie go to school so she could fit into life on Earth more normally. She seemed happy about it, but we still need your approval."
"Fine! I approve. But if anything gets out of control, it's your responsibility. That's all."
With a snap, Nick Fury shut off the communicator, then climbed out of the bathtub, scowling!
He was no longer in the mood for a bath. He was getting more and more fed up with Coulson. Did he have to ask for approval over every little thing? And, more importantly, why was it always when Fury was off work?
Wait. Just as Nick Fury reached for a towel, he suddenly froze...
Had Coulson just said he wanted to send little Annie to school? And had Fury agreed? Had he done a risk assessment? What if... what if the little girl suddenly lost control and hurt someone or destroyed the school?
Nick Fury hurried back to the communicator. He was about to dial Coulson again, but stopped.
He thought it over. Since he'd already given his approval, he shouldn't go back on his word. He had to uphold the authority of a decisive, far-sighted director, after all. Anyway, he'd already said Coulson would be responsible if anything happened. So that was that! What did he care if the little girl burned down a school? The director was a busy man!
"..." Coulson stared at the screen showing the call had ended, at a loss for words. He'd prepared a whole stack of assessment reports and hadn't even had time to say a word, yet the director had agreed?
"What's wrong?" Melinda had just returned from shopping with Annie. She tossed bags full of purchases into the car and looked curiously at Coulson. Most of the things were clothes and daily necessities for Annie.
"I just reported to the director. He agreed to let Annie go to school..."
"Great! Come on, Annie, get in!" After getting into the driver's seat, Melinda ignored Coulson in the back, opened the passenger-side door, and beckoned Annie over. She'd completely forgotten the rule against letting children sit in the front. This was a S.H.I.E.L.D. car. Even if the police had the nerve to stop them, would they dare inspect it?
"Wow! The ocean! The beach! Tibbers, let's go play!"
Annie had just gotten out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. car when she saw the silvery-white beach and the vast, deep-blue ocean. She was thrilled. She dashed away, kicked off her shoes, and raced toward the sand! It was her first time at the seaside.
(Tibbers didn't answer its mistress. Did she think it would come out and go swimming with her? Not a chance! It was a Shadow Bear, and it was on fire. Water and fire didn't mix, so it wasn't coming out to play in the sea with that little girl. No way!)
"Wow~! A beach house? Looks like the director really spent big."
After driving into the open garage, Melinda and Coulson got out. She leaned against the car with her arms folded, watching Annie frolic on the beach as she sized up the villa.
It was a seaside villa on the outskirts of New York City: a three-story wooden house with a red roof and white walls. It had a backyard, a swimming pool, three garages, and a huge private beach. Oh! There was even a yacht docked at a little private pier on the sand!
"In fact, the beach for five miles around belongs to it." Coulson pocketed the car keys and stood beside Melinda.
"What a corrupt bureaucrat," Melinda grumbled.
"At least we're the ones enjoying it now, aren't we?" Coulson grinned. Only now did he feel that this temporary babysitting job wasn't so bad after all.
"I get the feeling we're benefiting from Annie," Melinda said, displeased with Coulson's attitude.
"Is there a difference?" Coulson asked, turning to open the villa's door.
Melinda shook her head helplessly, then called to Annie, who was still playing on the beach. "Annie! Come back and see your new home! It's going to get dark soon!"
"Coming~!" Annie scooped up a handful of seawater and tasted it. Ptooey! It was salty, bitter, and sour! She'd been planning to go play in the sea, but then remembered she couldn't swim, so she decided against it. For now, she'd go check out her new home!
Annie was quite pleased with the place. After all, the Voodoo Lands had nothing much to do besides swamps, poisonous fog, beasts, and all sorts of flying and crawling insects.
The three of them opened the villa's front door and were about to go inside when the whole space suddenly twisted. No matter how hard they pushed, the door wouldn't budge. They looked up and saw an identical beach house floating upside down in the sky above them! It was as if a gigantic mirror had been placed across the sky, reflecting the villa, the beach, and the ocean.
"Annie! Please don't use weird magic like that!" Melinda and Coulson instinctively assumed that Annie was responsible.
"It wasn't me!" Annie glared at them, annoyed.
Annie wouldn't use Mirror Space magic carelessly. She could do it, of course, but it was dangerous! Without sufficiently advanced spatial magic skills, using such a dangerous spell could easily leave someone lost in the Mirror Dimension forever, unable to return to the real, physical world!
In the Voodoo Lands, the old men with long beards only used the Mirror Dimension when conducting certain dangerous magical or alchemical experiments, to keep those terrifying experiments from causing irreversible damage to the physical world.
Clearly, some other mage had attacked Annie. But their technique was too crude and heavy-handed! Annie was very unhappy about it. How dare they use such a dangerous spell on her without a second thought? Annie decided to teach them a good lesson!
Annie raised a finger, gathered her magic, and lightly tapped the air. A ripple of magical energy spread out like waves on water. Counterspell: Dispel Mirror! Lock onto space!
As the visible magical ripples spread, the entire Mirror Dimension shattered like broken glass and vanished. The world returned to the seaside beneath a blue sky and white clouds.
"They did it!"
Annie pointed toward the road outside the villa. Five figures stood there in hooded robes. Their faces were hidden in the shadows beneath their hoods, and they all looked more or less alike. Each held a wooden stick of unclear purpose.
Anyway, Annie had sensed magical energy coming from them. It was very weak compared to hers! About the level of apprentices in those gray organizations? Since when had a bunch of apprentices gotten so bold? They dared to use the Mirror Dimension recklessly?
Without a word, Melinda and Coulson turned and drew the pistols at their waists. They gripped them with both hands and aimed at the five figures on the road.
"Who are you? Stay where you are, or we'll shoot!"
"Heh."
The leader didn't stop. He merely chuckled. At the same time, two hooded men stepped out from beside him. They flicked their wooden sticks, which turned into flaming whips. Before the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could even process what was happening, the men casually whipped the guns out of Coulson and Melinda's hands.
"Damn it!"
Coulson clutched his wrist and took a step back. It was clearly dislocated. Melinda's arm had also been cut, leaving a streak of blood, but she stepped forward instead. She drew a baton from her waist and glared furiously at the approaching men.
Annie frowned as she watched the five strange men continue marching toward them. Tibbers told her they meant her harm! But Little Bear Tibbers didn't seem inclined to come out. After all, these people were so weak Annie could incinerate them all with a single finger!
But this was right outside Annie's new home, and she liked it here. She had to think carefully about what magic to use without burning anything. Normally, the spells Annie was best at, and used most often, were little fireballs, big fireballs, and really big fireballs. It didn't seem like she had many other options. Oh, Annie really hated fighting right outside her house! She wanted to blast them away and burn them to ashes, but she was afraid of ruining the pretty flowers and plants!
"Take them down!" The leader removed his hood, revealing his face. Only then did Coulson and the others see that he was an unfamiliar middle-aged Black man.
As soon as he spoke, his four subordinates split up and flanked them from both sides. They flicked their staffs, which turned into gleaming whips, then lashed them toward Annie and the others, seemingly intending to capture all three alive.
"Hmph!" Annie snorted. She waved her little hand, and a transparent, fiery shield sprang up around her, Coulson, and Melinda. The four whips struck the shield and bounced off.
Seeing that their attack had failed, the Black man in charge stepped forward. He held out one hand and used the other to draw circles at Annie and the others. The four who had attacked first changed their whips back into wooden staffs, stuck them behind their backs, then spread out around Annie and the others and copied their leader, drawing circles at the magical shield.
Huh?
Annie was stunned. What were they doing? They were about to fight, and they were drawing circles at her? Were they trying to curse her by drawing circles? It looked pretty impressive! Was this some new kind of curse spell? She was kind of excited to find out... Should she wait and see?
While Annie wondered what they were up to, the others finished drawing five circles each. Then they all jumped into the circles and instantly appeared inside Annie's magical shield. Two of them lunged at Coulson. Caught off guard, he was kicked in the lower back and fell face-first to the ground, where the two men immediately subdued him!
The other two each stomped on the back of Melinda's lower leg, forcing her to her knees, then twisted her arms behind her back. At the same time, the Black leader appeared behind Annie and brought his right hand down toward the back of her neck, apparently intending to knock her unconscious.
"Annie hates you!"
Annie sensed the movement behind her and clenched her little fist. Flames burst from her body, then spread out in a violent wave of scorching air that sent all five attackers flying into the sky. Melinda and Coulson weren't affected because one was lying on the ground and the other was kneeling.
Watching the five men lose their balance in midair, Annie didn't stop. She reached out her right hand and grabbed at them. Five long ropes of fire appeared out of nowhere and bound them up! Then Annie waved her hand, hurling the bound men down onto the beach, where they landed face-first in the sand.
Annie pursed her lips in disdain. It had been so easy to deal with them.
They were mages, albeit weak ones, so why were they fighting in close combat like warriors? The mages in this world were so strange!
And their teleportation spell needed them to draw circles to open a spatial passage? That had really startled her at first! She'd been so excited, but the result had been such a letdown! Where was the promised circle-drawing curse?
Annie figured that if they'd fought seriously, she'd have had enough time to burn them a hundred times before they finished their circles! No, at least a thousand times!
"Hello, Director? We might need a little backup here..." Coulson had just gotten back to his feet, and once again he immediately pulled out his phone and called S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury.
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