When they had the machine lined up, Sabrina hit the button again and a ball screamed out of the tube and hit the Nutcracker in the chest. The force was so incredible it left a huge dent.
The creature turned, a red light flashing in its mechanical eyes. It rushed at them so quickly, the only thing to do was push the button on the ball machine and hold it down. A ball crashed into the robot's face, knocking a metal panel off and revealing its wiring. Then another slammed into its right leg. Each ball knocked the robot back, but each time it recovered and kept coming at them.
Sabrina quickly studied the pitchmaster's controls. There was a button that read LIGHTNING FASTBALL. She pushed it just as the Nutcracker's hand reached out for her. A ball shot out of the machine's tube and hit the creature between the eyes. Smoke suddenly billowed out of its head, and little sparks of fire popped around inside what had been the robot's brain. A second later the creature fell over and moved no more.
There was a loud clang and Sabrina turned. Oz had been hiding nearby and knocked over a rack of bicycles in his effort to escape. He raced to the escalators and the entire family took off after him. As soon as the Wizard reached the top of one escalator, he hurried to the next until he had quickly reached the top floor of the store. When the Grimms and Puck finally got there, he was nowhere in sight.
"Oz, we know you're up here," Granny Relda called out.
"Yeah, you can't hide from us or from the beating you're going to get when we find you," Puck said.
"Shut up! You're not helping," Sabrina said.
"Don't tell me to shut up. I'm a king," Puck said.
"You're an idiot."
Just then, an enormous glowing head materialized out of thin air. It seemed to be made of emerald-green fire and had horrible black eyes. When its mouth opened, Oz's voice came bellowing out. "I have never had luck with children. I have to admit I've always underestimated them and they have been my undoing."
Puck snatched a giant candy cane decoration off a wall nearby and swung it at the head. "Aw, shut up." The cane passed right through the head, breaking up the image only temporarily.
"Look at Dorothy," the head continued. "That little girl was a moron, I tell you. I mean, dumber than a box of rocks. She comes to me asking for a way back to Kansas. I mean, if you could have a wizard grant a wish, would you waste it on going to Kansas? And her friends! 'Give me a heart!' 'Give me a brain!' 'Give me courage!' What they needed was a clue. So, I sent them to see the Wicked Witch of the West. Who would have thought they'd ever come back? They ruined everything for me. Well, I won't let it happen, again. It's time the Wizard got a wish of his own."
Sabrina motioned for everyone to follow her. Oz had to be hiding somewhere nearby.
"You're not going to get away with this," she muttered.
"Oh, but I am," Oz cried as the head followed her. "After all, I'm the great and terrible Wizard. I can do magic, child, and I've got a lot of tricks up my sleeve."
They turned a corner and found the man standing in plain view. He was busy working the buttons on his silver remote control, pounding them frantically and causing the little device to squeal and honk. When he finally noticed the family, he groaned. "Don't look behind the curtain," he said with an uncomfortable laugh.
"Oz, give me the book," Sabrina said.
"I can't, child," he said. The Wizard shook his head as he pushed a button on his remote, then backed away from the group.
Suddenly there was an incredible rumbling beneath them. The building shifted as a fissure opened up, snaking across the entire floor. Puck and the Grimms were knocked to their knees. The floor was splitting in two to make way for something big, round, and green. It rose higher and higher, and got bigger and bigger, until it nearly filled the entire store. With nowhere else to go, it pushed through the ceiling, causing concrete and wood to crash down around everyone.
"Is this another one of his robots?" Puck shouted as he clung to Sabrina.
"No! It's something else," she said as a large woven basket rose up from below. It was attached to the giant green orb by ropes and had a silver furnace inside it. The Wizard climbed into the basket and then it too lifted upward. Suddenly, Sabrina knew exactly what the thing was. "It's a hot-air balloon."
The basket rose through the hole in the ceiling and the balloon was aloft.
"Give me the journal, Oz!" Sabrina cried.
"Is that the wish you want the mighty Oz to grant?" he cried as he rose higher and higher. "Then you will have to do something for me first."
"Stop playing games!" Granny Relda cried.
"You know the story, people. You can have your heart's desire but you have to do something for me. You have to kill the Wicked Witch of the West!" Sabrina saw Oz push another button on his controller just as the balloon disappeared from sight.