You led Julie down to the basement where you stood in front of the wall, facing the back yard. It was your dad's work station before he had passed away. You shed a single tear, thinking of him and wished he could see you now before stating the command phrase to open the door. "Tamami!"
The shelves on the wall moved aside and the wall behind it slid down, into the floor, revealing a large, well lit chamber beyond, which you entered with Julie quickly following. Once the door closed behind you, she looked at you, curious.
"Tamami?" she asked.
You shrugged. "I am Mat, said backwards." you replied. Julie giggled to which you asked, "Would you have guessed it?"
Julie shook her head. "Never." she replied. then she turned to your laboratory and her jaw dropped. "Woah!"
You smiled at her reaction. "This is where I had been spending most of my time during the past year." you said. "Only, John told me that I am at the level of a pseudo witch but I still need training."
Looking around, feeling as if she had been pulled into a high budget science fiction movie with countless of high tech equipment that she could only guess did what. Julie had seen uncle John's laboratory at grandma's house but this one was far more advanced. Then, she saw a full holographic image of uncle John approaching her.
"Good day, Julie." he said. "Welcome to Mat's laboratory." he then turned to Mat. "I thought you had planned not to tell your family until your birthday party this evening."
"I was practicing reveal spells in the living room and accidentally summoned Mat's book." explained Julie, defending you. "Mom does not know, I confronted Mat alone and asked him to show me his laboratory."
John turned back to Julie. "I understand." he said. "Would you like to participate in Mat's final test?"
"What kind of test?" asked Julie.
John smiled. "A duel."
"We were planning just that." you said. "Julie wants to see how strong I had become."
Two round platforms rose from the floor and lit up before you and your sister took your positions, facing each other in a dueling posture. "The rules are simple." said John. "Energy blasts only, the first to knock the other off their platform will win the duel... begin!"
Julie started first with a powerful energy blast, not wanting to go easy on you, but you managed to dodge it and fire one of your own as she fired again. Back and forth for nearly twenty minutes, you and Julie exchanged blows with you, soon after, sweating and gasping for breath. You sister seemed relentless but you had your mom's iron will and fired one last powerful blast, hoping it would throw her off her platform. Only, to your shock, she caught your blast and threw it right back, giggling, "Catch!"
You were out of breath and on the verge of passing out but you managed to catch it and weakly throw it back before falling from your platform, no longer able to stand. Only to your surprise, Julie was there to catch you with hologram John, watching over you, smiling.
"Congratulations, Mat." said John. "You have proven yourself powerful enough to hold your own against a witch with a year of training, I am very proud of you."
"Did I win?" you asked.
Julie winced slightly. "Sorry, Mat, you lost." she said. "Don't feel bad, though, I have three years of training over you." she then smiled. "Despite that, you really made me work for that win, I'm impressed."
"Mat still requires training." said John to Julie. "When your uncle John was trained by Jack, he gained five years of training in one year, making him very formidable against even adult witches." he frowned. "However, this also caused John several porblems among the witching world."
"How so?" asked Julie.
"Would you be worried if a 13 year old girl suddenly gained the power of an adult witch?" asked John. "Take that fear and and the fact that the witch is a boy, someone who is not supposed to have 'magic' at all."
Julie shivered that the thought. "I see your point." she said.
"John has been teaching me gender spells." you told Julie. "That way, I can practice in the open after my birthday and everyone, who knows, will think it was magic."
"John's mother felt robbed and betrayed as Jack had trained him instead of her." said 'John'. "Therefore, I had been programed to only train Mat to the point where he can defend himself and allow his mom to continue his training."
You turned to John, hurt. "Does this mean..."
"No, I will always be here to guide and protect you, Mat." said John. "I am merely opening the door for your mother to participate in your training."
You smiled at that.
Later on...
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