"Well..." Julia started.

"Let me guess, you vowed to return and rend him into a thousand pieces ?" I asked.

"Well... yeah, pretty much. It's a barbarian thing, it helps when you're stressed..."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Some people. Why, it was almost enough to make me skulk in dark alleys and stab people in the back. Well, ok, back of the leg. "Okay, so we hide the manuscript and play innocent," I said.

"Where? It's all just wall and landings and stairs."

By this time, the wizards were about a floor away from us, and closing fast. I rolled the manuscript up, then glanced around. Not many choices. I didn't have any pockets big enough. They were just around the corner and I was out of ideas. So I hopped up on the railing and shoved it down Julia's magically augmented cleavage. "HEY!" she yelled, just as the wizards came around the bend. They both stopped talking, and stared at us.

I waved happily to them, acting as innocent as possible, my hands safely in sight. Julia was making strange noises behind me, probably debating whether to push me over, strangle me, or wait for the wizards to leave. They stared at us, silently, for the whole trip around the tower, not quite sure what to say. Then the stairway carried them around the curve and we breathed a sigh of relief. Prematurely. Evidently, it'd taken a little bit to click with Bombast. He yelled something incomprehensible. I peered up as we curved around again, saw a puff of smoke where he'd been. Probably poofed up to the office. "I suggest that we get ready to..." I started.

Then Bombast popped back in, closer to us. "Thieves! THIEVES! Stop them, my ninjas!"

And a whole horde of ninja mice appeared all over the stairwell, flipping and jumping and other ninja things, toward us. "..RUN!" I finished.

The stairway shaft was fairly narrow, the ninjas kept jumping and flipping from side to side of it as they chased us. Julia just barreled ahead down the moving stairs, I slid down the railing. We burst out of the bottom door and slammed it shut on the ninjas. Julia knocked a decorative potted plant in front of it, then we ran out the main doors, past a shocked tour group and their speechless guide.

Behind us, there was a bang and a clatter as the ninjas slammed into the door, sending the plant skidding across the lobby. Then they hit the doors again and slammed the doors open and flipped and jumped their ninja way past the tour group and after us. The doors slammed shut right as Bombast and his companion reached it. They picked themselves up and pushed the door open, then walked slowly out through the lobby, holding their noses. I never did find out how the tour guide explained our little parade.

The ninja mice were coming up fast behind us, so I tossed a bag of marbles their way, all across the sidewalk. I looked back when I heard a crash. Ha, one of the ninjas had slipped and fell. That should show him... what the? A sphere bounced out of his chest when he landed on his back, and he turned into one of those wooden mannequins. "Hey, they're fake!" I yelled to Julia, who was outdistancing me.

"Oh, well, in THAT case," she said, as she stopped and yanked the sword out, "I don't have to feel bad about hurting them."

The ninjas caught up to us then and Julia waded happily into them, hacking away. Me, I was a bit more specific. The ninjas had a wide variety of weapons, all the standard ninja gear. Impressive as they all looked, they weren't very good with them. Julia and the sword enjoyed themselves, splintering wooden skulls and bodies. A carefully thrown pointy thing of mine knocked the sphere from one of the ninjas, a quick kick to the back of another released its sphere, others fell out easily with the proper application of daggers or their own weapons to the appropriate spots. In not very long at all, the only ninja mice around were in pieces, or lying in limp wooden suspension, their spheres scattered as if by a pair of bad pool players.

I looked back toward the building just in time to see Bombast's companion slip on the marbles, and land on his butt. Bombast wobbled, but didn't fall. Darn. Oh well, looked like we had plenty of a lead, for the moment. Julia was looking around for more ninjas to fight, I poked her and pointed down the path. While we were fighting, a crowd had started to gather , so I headed that way. Oddly enough, most of the wizardly students moved out of our way. I'm sure it had more to do with my "Excuse me"s than the sight of a six foot plus leather clad barbarian warrioress bearing down on them.

Unfortunately, the near fall on the marbles had evidently restarted Bombast's brain, as he appeared in front of us just then with a POP! and a cloud of smoke. And was promptly plowed into by Julia. I stopped in time, but she, with all the muscle and... other flesh granted by the magic armor, didn't. The two of them fell out of the back of the cloud of smoke like a rather confused and fuzzy elephant.

"Get off me wench!" Bombast roared. Well, tried to, anyway. Julia's weight was cutting off his air and muffling him.

"Wring his neck!" the sword suggested. Julia and Bombast attracted much interest and delight from the crowd as they tried to untangel themselves. Amid their laughter and appreciative catcalls, Julia untangled herself fand was first to her feet.. Bombast's attempt to rise was foiled when I sat on his shoulder. Oh, and Julia's foot in his chest helped a little too.

"Unhand me, you thieves!" Bombast yelled.

"Now, why would we want to do that?" I asked.

"I am the head of this university, and..." he began, just as his companion arrived.

His companion turned out to be (surprise) another wizard. He pushed through the crowd, took one look at the situation, and burst out laughing. Which was obviously not the reaction that Bombast had been hoping for. While we looked over at the commotion, Bombast muttered some kind of spell and waved a hand, then transformed into a big scaly critter. The BombastMonster roared to his(it's?) feet, forcing Julia to jumpeback. I hit the ground and rolled, abandoning my perch. The students drew back, evidently simultaneously remembering much more important business they had forgotten about. Preferably somewhere far away.