Hello everyone! Long time no update, neh? XD Well anyway, I have one action-packed chapter for you ^_^ Also, be sure to check the TNAB website sometime this weekend, I hope to post the sneak peek! Also, be sure to check out the gallery for pictures of Black Widow if you haven't already seen them =D

On with the story!

Jack climbed up the ladder to one of the top shelves on the vast bookcase. He skimmed his index finger over the spines until he came across what he was looking for.

"Aha!" he pulled out the book entitled Mythical Beings and Creatures. He turned around, sat on a ladder step, and began to flip through the pages.

"It's got to be in here somewhere." he muttered to himself, his eyes narrowed in concentration. "Here it is!" he exclaimed and held the book closer to his face. He carefully read over the passage with the heading 'Flamma Sorcerers.'

Flammas are one of the four types of elemental sorcerers. This particular bloodline has the ability to manipulate fire in any shape or form. A full fledged Flamma has the ability to control fire at will without the use of incantations. They are natural warriors and very hot-tempered.

The one true weakness of Flammas lies with their elemental opposite, water. If they are surrounded by a column of water with the use of a spell, they cannot escape it. Magic water burns their skin and cancels out their powers for a brief period of time.

"Ha ha! That is just what I was looking for!" Jack beamed. "Black Widow is most certainly a Flamma, and now I have a way to defeat her! But what of those odd invisible bindings?" he grasped his chin as he pondered, "It would make sense if it was some form of spider's silk, hence her name. But I do not know of any type of sorcerer with that particular ability."

He skimmed through the book, trying to find any information about magically endowed thread, but came up with nothing.

"Well, at least with the information this book gave me, I have a spell to use against her." he then grumbled, "How I wish I was some sort of water mage, then the situation would be in my favor."

"Okay, so now that I have a defense that can be used to take down Black Widow, how will I find out where Amelia is? Even if I use some sort of threat, I doubt she would tell me. So how can I save Amelia if I don't even know where to find her?" he heaved an exasperated sigh, "All that I know is she's somewhere in Halloween Town." he grasped his chin in thought, "Maybe I could scare it out of Lock, Shock, and Barrel. I'm certain they would know where Amelia was being kept."

After a moment he stepped down from the ladder, placed the book on his desk and picked up the one beside it.

"I had better get working on that spell. I can't hope to bring down Oogie Boogie with Black Widow on his side. Who knows when they will make their next appearance," Jack stated and opened up the spell book.

For hours he practiced and perfected the technique, and just when he was finally satisfied that he had nearly mastered it, a loud crash echoed throughout the town. Jack hastily dashed over to his window to gaze outside and, to his horror, saw none other than the dastardly duo rampaging through the town. This time, however, Black Widow was flying through the air, setting some of the buildings ablaze for real as Oogie terrorized the citizens into bowing before him. Jack didn't waste another second. He was suddenly in the middle of all the commotion.

"Cancellare!" he swept his hand through the air and the flames were suddenly extinguished.

"Cease this destruction immediately!" The Pumpkin King shouted angrily, causing the boogie man and his evil companion to turn their attention toward him.

"Pah, we can take out this twiggy skeleton easily." Oogie cackled, but was silenced by Black Widow raising her hand defiantly. However, she never glanced at Oogie for she held Jack's determined gaze with a fierce one of her own. She recognized the challenge.

"No," she said slowly, "I want to go at this alone."

"But—" Oogie was cut off by her fiery glare, shutting him up immediately.

Black Widow quickly descended to stand a mere few feet away from the Atrum sorcerer. "So you finally got the guts to challenge me on your own. Did that annoying Doctor Finklestein put them in for you?"

"You're actually using childish bully tactics against me, the King of Halloween?" he scoffed, "You disappoint me."

"Humph, even though you're a skeleton, it surprises me that you actually have a backbone."

"I thought spiders were supposed to be silent."

"Yeah, so we can creep up on prey easily after they've been caught in our trap."

"You certainly talk an awful lot then."

"I don't need a trap or sneaky tactics to take you down."

Jack smirked, "Prove it."

Before she realized what happened, a blast of eerie green light struck her, sending her skidding backwards several feet.

"Heh, it's about time," Black Widow sneered, "I was getting tired of the banter." She suddenly flew at him with her lightning fast speed and blazing fire in both of her hands.

But Jack acted quickly, bringing up the nearby shadows to wrap around him. Just as she was about to strike, he melted into the ground.

"Come out you coward!" Black Widow shouted as she readied herself for him to strike.

Suddenly a long, slithering black shadow wrapped around her body, which tightened every time she struggled. Jack surfaced again from the ground and approached her.

"I see you're not kidding around this time." Black Widow managed to comment despite being unable to move.

The Pumpkin King didn't say a word as he raised his hand and curled his skeletal fingers into a fist. Black Widow yelped in pain as the shadow constricted again, but still she kept her head up and her fierce red eyes on him.

"I'm surprised…you've yet…to threaten me…to tell you where…Amelia is…" She managed to gasp out, obviously not ready to give in.

"Why bother, I know I'll get an answer out of you when I defeat you."

"I doubt that…bone-man." She closed her eyes and her body became visibly relaxed. Against Jack's will, the shadows carefully set her down and released her.

"What the!" was all Jack was able to say before he had to dodge a speeding blaze of fire.

"I plan to burry you six feet under before you even get a chance to defeat me!" the sorceress came back at him and lashed out a wave of flames.

Jack decided to fight fire with fire and shot his own scorching blaze at her attack. The two infernos struck, engulfed themselves and vanished. But the Pumpkin King soon realized that his adversary had disappeared as well. As if on cue, something roped around him and yanked him backwards several yards before he landed on his back. Then he was suddenly hoisted into the air, dangling helplessly from the invisible thread that seemed to be wrapped around the tree branch above him.

"I always knew you were a fool but I didn't realize you were this pathetic." Black Widow retorted as she coolly approached him.

"You forget that you're dealing with the King of Halloween, I have many tricks up my sleeve." Jack smiled triumphantly and what had appeared to be dead leaves on the tree suddenly flew off and attacked Black Widow. She hastily tried to swat them away but they swarmed her, scratching her skin and tearing her clothes. The sorceress tried to conjure up a flame but each time she lifted her hand, it was immediately barraged.

'Those bats will keep her busy for a while,' Jack thought to himself, 'hopefully just enough that I can…' He closed his eyes and after a moment, the tree's shadow split in two and came up to him. They grasped the invisible bindings and pulled. The strong silk didn't budge for several seconds before it finally gave out.

Jack hastily leaped out of the trap and landed crouching on the ground. He was shocked to find Black Widow standing perfectly still, with her eyes closed, taking the brunt of the bats fanatic bites and scratches. Then suddenly, her entire body became engulfed in flame, causing the bats to flee in terror. She rose into the air and opened her eyes which were also brightly ablaze.

"You, Jack Skellington, will never again see the light of day!" she screamed and dived at him with lightning fast speed, so fast that the Pumpkin King didn't even have the chance to blink, let alone defend himself. She drove him hard into a nearby wall, causing the skeleton man to shout in pain.

Black Widow jumped away from him, levitating just above the ground as he lay slumped against the stone wall.

"You think you're a hero, Jack? Look around at the town you so desperately tried to protect." She made a sweeping gesture with her arm toward the center of Town Square.

Oogie Boogie towered over the cowering citizens, some even banged up from trying to protect their home. The three miscreant henchmen were rounding up the remainder of the townspeople who had fled, bringing them to join the group bowing before the giant boogie man.

"You have failed. Halloween Town is now ours, and the only one left to stand in our way is you." she spat, "The choice is yours, surrender now or else Amelia will be gone forever."

"I think I'll take the third option." He smiled.

"What?"

Jack suddenly jumped up, outstretched his arm toward the nearby fountain, and lifted all of its water into the air. Before she could prepare to counter, shadows from the ground shot up and wrap around her ankles. As she struggled to break free, Jack called out the incantation as he moved the water.

"Parietis de unda!"

The water formed into a tall column surrounding Black Widow on all sides. The liquid wall then quickly collapsed on her, dousing her fire. The shadows binding her suddenly let go and she fell back down to the solid earth with a loud thud. Jack let out a breath he didn't even realize he was holding, but remembered to keep his guard up as the sorceress gradually lifted herself up onto her hands and knees.

"And what was that supposed to do?" She quickly stood and summoned a flame into the palm of her hand.

"What! B-but how!" Jack stuttered in shock and Black Widow just scoffed.

"Heh, you thought I was a Flamma didn't you? Well you certainly were a fool to assume that!" she slowly approached him, "I really thought you were smarter than that, Jack. There is another bloodline that can manipulate the elements, including shadows, just as well as any elemental type sorcerer."

She then hurled the ball of fire at him, to which he quickly dodged. But then she began to launch several fiery missiles at him, one right after another. Jack hastily evaded each one, but a few did graze him and burn his clothing. It was becoming quite obvious that the skeleton man was exhausted, and that's when he took the wrong step, directly in front of Black Widow's path.

"Orbis Carcer!" she shouted, her hand outstretched toward him. Immediately Jack was trapped within a giant red orb that was quickly closing in on him.

"You really are pathetic," the dark sorceress cackled, "and to think you actually thought you could rescue Amelia and protect your precious Halloween Town, ha!"

"Amelia…what have you…done to her?" he panted as he struggled to keep the orb from getting any smaller by pushing against its walls, his hands surrounded by an eerie green glow.

"I suppose I could let you know a little more about what has happened to your precious heir just so I can see the look on your face." she snickered, "As we speak, Amelia is slowly being sealed away into another world. The more she disappears, the more her form becomes solid in the other dimension. And within a few days, once she becomes fully tangible, there is no hope of bringing her back."

Jack's eyes went wide with an aghast, terror-stricken expression. "Where is she!" he demanded.

"I am sorry, Mr. Skellington, for even I do not know exactly where she is. Not that I really care anyway."

"You vile, loathsome, vicious, horrible witch!" Jack yelled, his anger fueling him even further to break out of his prison, which only caused Black Widow to laugh with cruel glee. However, she gasped when the orb which encased him suddenly began fading and expanding. This was obviously not the Atrum's doing for his facial features expressed that he was just as shocked as she was.

"No!" she whipped her head around to gaze out at the horizon, colored with oranges, reds, and purples from the setting sun. She swore under her breath and turned back to the skeleton man.

"This is your last warning, Jack. We will be back and Halloween Town will be ours!" Black Widow dashed over to where Oogie and the trio were and all five of them quickly became enveloped in a thick smokescreen.

The red orb that held Jack captive finally disappeared completely and he dropped to the ground, landing safely on his feet. As he looked back up, the villains were gone and everyone seemed to be dumbfounded as to exactly what had just happened. Jack let out an exhausted sigh and slumped against the nearby wall, the same one he had been slammed into earlier. He slid down it until he was in a sitting position with his bony knees sticking up awkwardly and his arms resting tiredly at his sides.

"Jack! Jack!" the Mayor called, his face turned to his pale worried expression as he ran up to the Pumpkin King, "What in Halloween's name just happened!"

"I…don't know." the weary sorcerer breathed, "I don't know why they left when they had the perfect opportunity to take over. But I do know one thing's for certain. They will be back and next time they won't leave until they've won."

"B-but we can't let that happen!"

"I know I have to defeat Black Widow if I want to stop Oogie. But I still have no idea what I'm really going up against."

"But you're the King of Halloween! If anyone would know how to take down this Black Widow person, surely it's you!"

"I don't know if I can, Mayor. She's strong, and I'm starting to believe she's far too strong for me to handle…alone…" Jack's eyes became distant as he stared at the ground. The Mayor quickly realized what he was thinking about.

"What I mean, Mayor, is that I don't know what kind of sorceress I'm going up against." The Atrum further explained after a moment. "And since I don't know, I can't figure out a weakness, and if I can't figure that out…then I can't win."

"You can't just give up!"

"I never said I was giving up." Jack said sternly, but then his expression became calmer as he stood up, "Have the citizens begin repairing the damages, and tell them to be prepared for another attack."

"Of course, but what will you do about Black Widow and Oogie Boogie?" the Mayor asked.

"I…I just need to figure out a better plan." he held his hands behind his back and began to walk off. The Mayor didn't say another word, only watched forlornly as the king dragged his feet as he made his leave.

'What, or more precisely who I need,' the skeleton thought, 'is Amelia.'

Aaawww D: So sad *sniffles* What did you all think? Please review and tell me! Also, be sure to check out the TNAB website sometime this weekend, I hope to post the sneak peek! And be sure to take a look at the gallery for pictures of Black Widow!