How It All Goes Down
- Sophie sees a rat with bright red eyes watching them.
- As it turns out, these rodents are watching them for a reason. According to Flamel, they're spies under a scrying spell.
- Their magical masters can see everything the creatures can see. Does this mean Dee (or some other mysterious villain) is watching our crew as we speak?
- Frankly, Flamel is more concerned about the extraordinary number of crows that have been gathering on rooftops around them.
- Flamel, Sophie, and Josh trek through San Francisco's Chinatown until Flamel suddenly stops in front of a plain, unmarked wooden door.
- Gee, ain't that promising?
- After he presses a few spots on the door, it opens to a hallway filled with wonderful aromas.
- Here's where Sophie's tea training comes in handy: she smells Bergamot, Ylang-Ylang, and patchouli. Flamel, for one, is impressed with her nasal prowess.
- They find themselves at a doorway covered in what looks like paper.
- When Josh moves in for a closer look, Flamel yanks him back, telling him to "Wait. Look. Notice." Oh, and they should keep that advice in mind if they want to make it through the next few days.
- He's really upbeat, this Flamel.
- Flamel flicks a quarter into the air. Suddenly, it's impaled by a needle-tipped dart and pinned to the opposite wall. Well it's a good thing that didn't happen to our Josh.
- Listen up, kiddos, Flamel tells them. You've left the safe and ordinary world you once knew behind. Now the twins will have to question everything. No joke.
- He asks the twins to observe their surroundings.
- Josh notices that there are tiny holes in the wall camouflaged to look like a knot of wood. He wonders if each hole holds a tiny dart. Um, probably!
- Sophie, on the other hand, notices that there are gaps around the door.
- Well done, twins. Flamel commends them and tosses a tissue on the floor near the gap to test their close observations. A huge half-moon shaped blade slices through the tissue, turning it into confetti.
- Yikes. This is looking more and more like the Temple of Doom.
- Flamel suddenly pushes on the left wall and the three find themselves at a dojo, a martial arts school. Just roll with it.
- They meet a teenage girl with some awesome spiky red hair. We've got a problem, Flamel tells her: the Book has been stolen.
- Poor befuddled and bewildered Sophie and Josh take one look at this girl and feel, shall we say, unsettled.
- See, her emerald eyes don't blink. And that's more than a little creepy.
- The young woman senses Eyes (the spying rats and crows) and asks about Sophie and Josh. Seriously, Nick, who are these kids?
- Flamel tells her that they are the twins who fought for him and saved the two pages of the book. The red-haired woman seems interested in the fact that they are twins, and pointedly asks Flamel what he's thinking by bringing them here.
- "It's an interesting turn of events." That's all Flamel will say.
- He formally introduces Sophie and Josh to Scathach, The Warrior Maid of the Elder Race.
- She tells them to just call her Scatty.
- Will do, although we could think of a few more flattering nicknames.