Prequel
It was Friday, immediately after school, and the last thing Gus’ needed was a call to Dave Dean’s office – again. Still, since all he had to look forward to that night, was a trip to Wessex and he knew Chris would coerce him to spend at least part of the evening at that pool hall he liked so much, primarily because he was able to hustle the other players for cash. If he were being honest, Gus’d rather stay in his room tonight and read a good book, but he didn’t want to let his friend down.
Still, this might be to meet with Naomi Van Helsing again, could she possibly be back with his DNA results already?
He knocked on the door, which immediately opened. Inside sat Dave in his hover chair. “Sorry, Mr Jaeger, I’m hoping you’ve not got any serious plans for the weekend. I’m afraid the school has received a request for you to visit London; the Carpathian Consulate to be precise. Your father’s lawyer has arrived in the UK and requested your presence. The Carpathi… Ah, your Ambassador has agreed to host you both and will arrange for your return to the school on Sunday morning. Please pack an overnight bag and then head to reception where a car from the Embassy will collect you in about half an hour…”
His dad’s lawyer? Last time he’d seen him was just after the accident and rescue, when he’d arranged the visit with the woman he had been told was his mother.
He thanked Mr Dean absent-mindedly and immediately headed to his room to get ready.
Saturday Night
The final bus from Wessex to St. Mary Mede had only three passengers for the last couple of miles, two Claremont pupils and a sleeping drunk muttering and swearing under his alcoholic breath at the front of the bus.
Chris sat at the back, happy that he’d made what he considered a small fortune from the Pool Hall tonight. In the middle of the bus, also sitting on his own, was Colin Duncan from the year above his. Chris smiled. He was pretty sure that Colin, who was sensei of the after school jujitsu class was also the HCP student Cadet, but of course they’d never really talked – at least not since he’d helped them escape their kidnapping by the Rejects, months before.
Colin sat in deep thought. He’d thought when he and Lance had become trainees with London Watch that he’d at last be treated as an adult. Instead, he’d spent tonight’s operation being bored, sitting in their control room listening in on the team Comms instead of doing any actual field work. Even Lance, Moses, only got to observe them in action, not actually participate. It was… frustrating to say the least! Cheshire Cat had dropped them off in Wessex an hour ago – Moses had immediately headed to the Endeavour Pub to work his shift, leaving Colin to make his own way back to school. Well, at least he had company – one of the weird kids from Year Four – the one that called himself Firewall. After all, they’d only two kids join midterm and that same day two new kids had joined the HCP as Firewall and Ashen, and he was pretty sure the one his classmates called the ‘Count’ had to be Ashen.
Moments later the bus pulled up at the bus stop opposite the Reception Block and they got off, passing the drunken shakes and lurid ramblings of the remaining passenger, and together walked down the lane towards the school gates. There was the old, red telephone kiosk that was their connection to Camille and the gatehouse. Colin stepped in, but propped the heavy, glass panelled door open so they could both access the biometric pad that activated the inset video screen and logged them back in.
Camille’s Pretty Vietnamese face came online. “Ah, Mr Duncan, Mr Sett, welcome back. I’ll open the gate for you.”
A few seconds later, Camille’s four-foot six shapely form appeared as the gate door opened and she welcomed them back for the evening. Apparently, except for Moses, they were the last students due back.
Colin smiled, “Evening, Camille. So, anything exciting happen whilst we were out?” Camille replied, “Ah, fairly quiet, only Mr Templar breaking into the Chapel of all places to hold an illegal film club for himself and the rest of the Year One boarder’s. Horror films, no less. Mr Templar’s taken full responsibility and he’s been put on the bill to see Mr Summers first thing Monday morning.”
Chris smiled, “Were they viewing the Exorcist?” Camille replied, “No, I don’t think so, not actually sure what they were actually watching but it’s the using the Chapel’s RE Classrooms without permission that he’s been pulled up for, not the contents of the film as far as I’m aware. Anyway, better head to your Dorm. Good night.”
They walked together towards Albion House making awkward small talk, across the car park back towards the main road outside the big wall before heading through the gap between the school building and the separating wall that ran down from the Reception Block and heading across the field towards the Chapel. It was a cold, slightly foggy night and away from the buildings, the only light was from the full moon.
“All we need now is the music of the night,” joked Chris as they headed towards Albion.
In front of them and barely visible, they saw several groups of shadowy figures shambling slowly across the playing fields, apparently heading for the Chapel. There was something not quite right about how they were walking. Several figures to the rear seemed to be stumbling or otherwise walking strangely.
Chris muttered to Colin that they had to be “Wrong un’s, probably up to no good.”
The figure in front was stomping forward, arms outstretched. His shape was familiar, squarish head and big, though Colin estimated that he was actually only about six foot tall. Behind him, floating a couple of feet above the ground, was a female in a long flowing white dress with a beehive hairdo. Behind both of them were several others, including someone who appeared to be wearing a cloak with the collar turned up. A floating Bride of Frankenstein (Chris recognised the image of the woman immediately), this was obviously not your run-of-the-mill ‘Bride’. Behind them were several male and female figures. Other figures shambled forward, including someone who was apparently pulling himself across the ground, dragging his body across the playing field.
At first, Chris’ thought it had to be something to do with the film night, but these figures were too big to be first years. They appeared to be focused on heading towards the Chapel rather than at them, but their paths would cross in a few minutes.
Colin took a better look and muttered, “Pretty sure they’re not pupils, trespassers probably.”
Chris wondered if any of the strange figures had already got inside the Chapel? There were no lights on and the front doors seemed to be locked, but there was no way to be sure, as they could have already gotten in round the back.
Colin made a decision. He pulled off his hoodie and jeans to reveal his HCP practice suit, activated the circuits to manifest his costume as he pulled out his visor and placed it on his face. Cadet’s signature uniform momentarily flared into action, before he activated its chameleon circuit to allow him to blend into the background. Chris muttered, “I Knew it” and bundled his own hoodie into his backpack before activating his own Firewall persona. He could really do with incorporating a full holographic unit into the suit so he could alter and disguise his presence, but – he put the thought away as something to consider when he wasn’t about to be potentially torn limb from limb by a cinematic Frankenstein’s monster and his Bride.
He then pulled out a pair of light intensifying goggles from his backpack and tried to get a better look at the swarm of people heading in their direction. He confirmed they were human going by their shapes, but appeared to be dressed up as characters from old horror movies. Was someone throwing a surprise fancy-dress party? He counted more than 15 of them, and they all appeared to be alive. They didn’t appear to be talking to each other, the only thing he could hear was the grunts from the first creature walking towards them with his arms outstretched.
Something wasn’t right – as it got closer it was clear that lead figure was the perfect image of Frankenstein’s monster from the old films, perfect in every aspect or at least that was the initial impression – though wasn’t the monster supposed to be about seven feet tall or something? This imitation was about a foot shorter than that. The female floating behind him was also the prefect image of the old Bride of Frankenstein down to the white streak in her hair! He checked the cloaked figure, yip the spitting image of Bela Lugosi’s Count Dracula.
The degree of duplication went far beyond costumes and make-up.
Firewall asked Cadet if he wanted to try to use his suit’s chameleon abilities to get in closer, but instead Cadet fired off his grappling hook, which snagged on the roof of the Chapel and hit rewind, whisking him to the roof of the Chapel. He then unhooked the cable and dropped it down to Firewall so he could also climb up. Once they were both up there, Cadet tried to contact Camille or the staff using his Comms earpiece, but he got no reply. Surprised at the lack of a response, Firewall muttered, “I’m glad, really, I want us to be the Calvary.”
They ran across the roof and jumped down at the back, where the RE classes were held. The doors were still locked, but it only took Firewall a couple of seconds with his lock picks to spring the deadlock. Really, he needed to remind someone to fit some decent locks, he thought.
“Cue ominous music,” he muttered as he opened the double doors and the two of them entered.
Inside, it was obvious that someone had rolled the big plasma TV out of one of the classrooms and set it against the wall. It was surrounded by a dozen big beanbags, obviously ‘borrowed’ from the meditation and well-being sessions. Several bowls of popcorn were scattered across the floor. Going by the amount of popcorn on the floor, the film session had obviously also involved throwing handfuls of popcorn at each other or perhaps they’d been suddenly interrupted, causing them to knock the bowls over?. Beside the TV was a school DVD player and a small heap of DVD cases.
Cadet quickly scouted around. The building seemed empty and as far as he could tell, nobody else had arrived at the Chapel yet, but the clunking footsteps were definitely getting closer.
Firewall meanwhile checked out the DVDs – sure enough they were classics; The Curse of Frankenstein, The Horror of Dracula, Night of the Living Dead and still in the machine itself was The Bride of Frankenstein. Not exactly what he’d expected from young Chris’, but perhaps he was a fan of classic films?
Cadet suddenly and silently appeared beside him, “Case of a haunted TV set?” Firewall replied, “There is obviously a connection between what is happening and these films, but I doubt merely breaking the TV or DVD player will do any good. In fact, it might mean they can’t go back to where they came from after this is over.”
“Worth running one in reverse?” Firewall looked sceptical, but agreed to try it with the film that was in the player. “You do know I’ll not be happy if the Bride comes in backwards now and still attacks us,” muttered Firewall. He hit rewind. Several seconds later, nothing had changed, but it had been worth a try. Never ignore the simple solutions thought Cadet, you never know.
From what they could see through the glass in the Chapel doors, Frankie-boy had arrived at the Chapel and was hammering away at the front entrance. The glass shattered, but for the moment the doors and frame held. Behind him, they could now clearly see what had been marching behind the three main characters. Striding up behind Dracula, dressed as sexy vampire Brides were three students they both immediately recognised; three of the most popular (or hated, depending on who you asked) girls in the senior years – Angel Summerville, Zoe Deren and another of Angel’s entourage, a hanger-on named Sandy Phillips. Their clothes had been altered into evocative vampiric outfits but not their faces, however their eyes glowed.
Behind them were three male vampires, complete with overgrown canines; they were all part of Ces’ Morgan’s gang. Firewall recognised the overweight vampire as Lawrence Smalls, the same person who’d asked the Balance duo whether their encounters were real or scripted. Beside him were Dimitri Ronin (or the HCP student Kilowatt) & Christopher Williamson, another of Ces’ heavies. You rarely saw these three unless they were following Ces’ around. They had glowing eyes also.
Behind them, the remaining shambling or crawling figures appeared to be slow moving Zombies moaning, arms outstretched, walking slowly, white glowing eyes apparently without pupils, with torn flesh and dried blood on the face and body. This legion of the apparent ‘Undead’ consisted of several teachers including Mr Summers, Ant Andrews, ‘Mama’ Hutchins and even “Creaky” e’Azam. ‘Dave’ Dean was the figure being left behind as he crawled along the ground, dragging his useless legs.
The three primary characters, Frankenstein’s monster, the Bride and Dracula looked as though they had just stepped out of their films, but the others present were only superficially altered or disguised.
“I don’t think it would be good if we kill teachers,” Firewall mumbled, “I’m pretty sure I read that was a big no-no in the school prospectus. However, from my memory of George Romero’s films, the only way to be sure is to shoot them in the head. Con-Flicted…” Cadet laughed despite the danger they now found themselves in, “Perhaps it would be best to deal with the three immediate threats first and worry about how to deal with zombie teachers later?” Firewall nodded, “Okay, let’s handle the Hollywood Legends first.”
There wasn’t time to figure out what was going on, as Frankenstein’s monster smashed his way into the Chapel in a shower of glass fragments and wood. Firewall looked around, “Fire, he doesn’t like fire. I’ve got my laser attack… It can start a fire. You got anything I can set on fire? There are all these oldie churchy things I could burn?” Cadet hesitated, “I don’t really think we want to risk burning the Chapel, let’s check the store cupboards.” He ran to the nearest cupboard and found several rolls of maps – would anyone care if they burnt maps of the holy lands or posters of alternative religions? He gathered them anyway and rushed back to Firewall. Firewall looked at cadet’s cache, “I don’t want to be sacrilegious but,” and screwed several of the maps together to make a torch before wrapping a damp cloth round his hand. “I take it you don’t have any asbestos gloves on you, do you? No?” “I’ve got earplugs…” Cadet offered.
As they were talking, the flying Bride flew into the Chapel, passed her ‘husband-to-be’ and began throwing the pews aside one-handed. Compared to The Monster, she was obviously inhumanly strong. The pews slammed against the walls of the Chapel and shattered as she dropped and began walking towards the rear of the pulpit and both of them.
Outside the Chapel, the ‘Count’ suddenly morphed into a bat – it was a human-sized bat – unlike in the films, this Dracula didn’t shrink when he took on bat-form but he obviously altered more than his appearance as he flew towards the Chapel at speed. BIG BAD BAT!!! Thought Cadet as he reached into his belt and pulled out a couple of flash bombs. Time for ‘let there be LIGHT!’ he thought as he waited until they were closer before he tossed them…
Firewall unleashed an energy burst at the Bride and Frankie. A bright burst of energy flared, which left the Bride dazed and staggered. It also momentarily ‘burnt’ away her illusion, revealing that the Bride was really an enraptured and mind-controlled Outrage. That explained the unexpected ability to fly and her immense strength, at least – those were Outrage’s natural meta-powers. Seconds later, the image of the Bride returned as she collapsed in pain. Frankie, however, seemed unaffected and tried to shuffle forward through the shattered remnants of the pews. Behind him, the giant bat arrived at the Chapel doors and, morphing in a mist, turned back into the cinematic image of Dracula. He stopped and looked behind him. The vampiric females and males were just outside the door. The common denominator, thought Cadet, was that they all had a tendency to bully or try to coerce the lower years. Only Outrage didn’t fit the pattern – she wasn’t a bully, but in fairness there weren’t many at the school who didn’t find her scary, especially about her being an outed meta with violent mood swings.
Despite lying on the ground, the Bride/Outrage still managed to grab a nearby pew and sent it flying towards the two of them. It tore down the curtains and shattered the partially opened glass partition between the Altar area and the room behind between the various classrooms where the two of them were standing. It missed them both, but peppered them with glass fragments as it landed behind them in pieces.
The effort had taken a lot out of her apparently, as again she momentarily reverted to Outrage as she collapsed back down again, her eyes glowing like the others. They heard a noise behind them and realised that at least some pseudo-vampires appeared to be moving around to the back of the Chapel.
Firewall ignored the still advancing make-piece monster and threw his flash bombs straight at him through into the Chapel. The creature growled as his eyes became impaired, causing him to stumble into the shattered furniture. As before, this attack caused him to revert to his real identity and as they looked, they saw their attacker was actually Nathaniel, one of Ces’s main enforcers. Again, until the aftershock passed, they could see his real face though with glowing eyes.
Cadet immediately fired off his grappler into the rafters and hit rewind, heading up and into the shadows of the roof. Firewall desperately wanted to follow him, but needed Cadet to drop a cable down. Meanwhile, he unleashed his laser blast at Dracula, firing a blast at his right arm intending to ‘wing’ him. It hit a glancing blow, leaving him with a scorched burn across his arm. It must have hurt though as it was sufficient for the image to drop momentarily revealing Ces’ Morgan’s ugly mug, though the glowing eyes seemed to indicate he wasn’t any more in charge of himself than the others. “Should have gone for the lethal shot after all,” Firewall muttered when he realised whom Dracula really was.
Ces’ reverted within seconds back into Dracula, who immediately misted into bat form again and flew straight at Firewall, obviously intent on biting him. Firewall threw himself to the side and it flew past and out the back into the open before being able to turn. Lousy cornering ability, thankfully.
Frankie rushed forward and made a grab for him; he felt his iron grip on his shoulder as he rolled out-of-the-way tearing his fingers loose and dropping the rolled up maps. Frankie continued to stumble forward and slammed bodily into the remains of the wall.
Chris looked up at Cadet in the rafters and uttered a loud, “Ahem, down here. A little help, possibly?” “I’m hesitant to use a gas grenade as it would also affect you.” Chris responded by pulling out a rebreather from his costume. “Never got round to returning this,” looking around him, he shouted, “Anytime now would be good” and put the unit between his teeth.
Suddenly a grapple grabbed him by his belt and Firewall found himself being yanked into the air by Cadet. “Always wanted to be an angel on high,” he joked as he grabbed for the beam and pulled himself on to it.
Cadet pulled his own rebreather out of his utility belt and bite down on it as he dropped several sleep gas capsules to the ground. Frankenstein’s monster breathed in the fumes and immediately collapsed exhausted beside ‘his’ struggling Bride, who was also breathing it in.
Cadet and Firewall finally had some breathing space to think. It might be that their attackers were just victims and what they needed to identify was a student with the ability to power them up. There was a particular student who might just fit that bill… Donna Avery was a mage who, although not outed above ground, didn’t bother with a separate identity Down Below in the HCP facility. Donna was the leader of the group of female powereds known as the Amazons. Her abilities could alter reality and potentially ‘power-up’ normal people, but she’d never shown any capacity to control or compel people before now, or had she? Who knew what a mage as powerful as she could potentially do?
She did hang around with Outrage, although she didn’t have a gripe with either Ces’ or Angel, as far as either of them knew. Of course, they might not be being controlled after all.
Firewall briefly considered seeing what would happen if he unleashed an EMP burst at the TV, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t the cause. The DVD’s? Who did they belong to? Firewall gestured towards them, “Ah Cadet, you fancy dropping down and checking if there are any identifying details on the DVD’s – possibly an ‘ex libris’ Angel or Avery or? I’ll just stay here for the moment and take in the sights.”
Cadet dropped by grapple and picked up the DVDs. In proper boarding school tradition, all pupil property was marked, and these were no exception. So who was C. Templar?
He then remembered that Camille had said that a year 1, a Mr Templar had been caught showing films there earlier. He should be in his dorm room, so perhaps they needed to return them to him?
He grabbed the DVD cases from the ground, pressed to eject the ‘Bride of’ DVD from the player, and immediately rappelled back into the rafters with them.
Meanwhile, the normally unpowered Ces’, in the form of a giant vampire bat, was heading back into the rear of the Chapel towards them. Cadet was still trying to clamber onto the beam as he came flying towards both of them. Firewall unleashed a Taser blast, hitting him square in his bestial barrel chest, causing him to collapse to the ground, changing back into an unconscious Ces’.
Meanwhile, the rest of the zombies and vampires were now close enough to be a threat. They needed to get out of there and fast.
Firewall decided that his best opinion was to data transfer himself down any connecting cables to the dorm, but looking around him, he wasn’t sure how the various buildings interconnected their electrical supplies. He did know that the telephone socket near the back door was connected to the school’s switchboard, and he could use that to transfer himself and the DVDs directly to Albion House’s senior common room.
He explained what he intended to cadet, apologising because he couldn’t carry anything heavier than about 20 kilogrammes with him when in electronic format. He would then head to young Chris’ room and hopefully Cadet would make his own way there.
He jumped down, ran towards the unplugged telephone socket and instantly vanished. Less than a second later, a costumed Firewall appeared in the senior common room intent on heading to the Junior Floor, but realised something was amiss. Lying on one of the big comfy couches, apparently asleep, was Donna Avery. Beside her, shaking her shoulder violently, was another student. “She won’t wake up, I don’t know what’s wrong, and the housemaster isn’t in at the moment. I don’t know what to do.” “What happened?” The upset student suddenly looked up, “She came in just before lights out, went to get herself a drink, sat down on the couch and suddenly collapsed. I’ve tried to find a teacher or contact Nurse Joy, but every one of the oldies seem to be out and I didn’t want to leave her alone.”
Back in the Chapel, Cadet watched a number of vampires about to enter the front door and to the rear a comatose Ces’ had turned back into Dracula. Cadet hurried out the back. Just for a second he considered whacking the unconscious school bully Ces’ with his Bo staff as he passed but managed to restrain himself as he sprinted across the open field, the Memorial Gardens and into the dorm. Hurling himself up the stairs, he reached the senior’s common room. He opened the door in time to see Firewall checking Donna’s pulse. She appeared to be comatose.
First things first, they both immediately headed for the Year One’s dorms. Finding young Chris’s room, they began hammering on the door. It opened and a very sleepy figure poked his head round, “Wha..?” Firewall immediately asked him what he’d done and did he know what was going on?
Young Chris’ immediately assumed they were talking about him being busted and tried to explain that he did it because he knew the staff would never agree to give him permission to watch his films.
“I shouldn’t have invited all of the Year One’s, but I’m the one getting it in the neck, they are ancient films after all. I didn’t expect anyone would get upset about them, there is nothing scary about them, and I didn’t expect that the ‘Obergruppenführer’s’ would go so ape when they arrived and found us.”
“What about Donna Avery? She seems to be passed out in the senior common room. You know anything about that?”
Young Chris looked concerned, “I don’t know why and it’s nothing to do with me, she wasn’t even there.” “OK!” said Firewall. Chris continued, “Only little Ashley from their group was there. You know, the little girl always carrying that rag doll of hers with her everywhere. You’ll know her, a bit of a misfit, looks like the traditional St. Trinian’s schoolgirl, dishevelled hair, uniform messed up. Usually only hangs around with the Amazons?”
He paused and looked guilty for a second, “I think she might have been scared. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I think it might have been the first horror film she’d ever seen, given she was brought up in the Amazon or somewhere like that, and her knowledge of TV seems to be limited to her soap operas. She did vanish before the teachers arrived. She’d been really keen to watch the movies but I think they really scared her as she sort of stayed in a corner of the room on her own during the first couple and when I put on the Night of the Living Dead she vanished as soon as the zombies began attacking. I think I really terrified her, and I didn’t even notice it at the time.” He looked guilty.
“Her room?” Young Chris pointed to the other side of the building. There didn’t appear to be any staff in the building to stop them (those on duty tonight all seemed to be all outside shambling across the grounds) so they rushed over, checking the name plates until they found Ashley’s room and began banging on the door. There was no response. She obviously didn’t have a roomie present, so Firewall elected to again pick the lock. Thankfully, this was nothing like the locks on his own or Gus’s rooms, and he had the door open in seconds. Inside, the bed was still made-up and there was no sign of current occupation.
Whatever was happening, young Ash wasn’t in her room and they hadn’t seen her amongst the gathered outside. They both remembered her in action, Down Below. Her codename was ‘Hocus Pocus’ and she had the power to possess an opponent; though she was not powerful enough to possess more than one person at the same time. Her face displayed white skull-like markings when using her powers.
They checked all the Common Rooms, but she wasn’t in any of them. They again checked on Donna and on lifting her eyelids realised her eyes were glowing the same as the others outside. Why was she unconscious? And why did she have a sleeping bag with her? She obviously intended to sleep somewhere other than her room, possibly even in the Common Room for some reason, but had fallen unconscious before she could even unroll her sleeping bag…
Cadet accessed his mental records on the other HCP students – his mind palace was his closely guarded secret, as he kept notes on and analysed all of his teammates and opponents to be better prepared for when he had to face them in combat. He never expected he would have to use it this way.
Hocus Pocus, Ashley, was the youngest of the Amazons. The rag doll acted as a focus for her powers, effectively a juju doll to control others, but the answer had to be her serious lack of life experience and the fact that all the others were protective of her as a result.
He knew that she had been the only survivor of an air crash in the Amazon that killed her parents. She had apparently been raised by a Shaman until she had been captured by a sinister group who tried to control her along with the several others who would later become part of Arcana’s Amazons. It had been that new team, The Balance, who’d apparently rescued her, Donna and Outrage and possibly the others, though he didn’t know that for definite. She has little or no life experience, and her knowledge of the Western world and culture was effectively non-existent. He now knew she was a big soap-opera fan. Could this be her first experience of seeing a horror film? How traumatic could that have been?
If that was the basic facts, what conclusions could he draw from all that? A scared and lonely child needs to feel protected. Donna, her guardian and protector, had been found in a coma but intending to sleep though not in her own room, why? She’d deliberately taken a sleeping bag with her, so she hadn’t just been looking for a drink.
Ashley’d have run straight to her friends, surely? We just need to find her. With the possible exception of Outrage, (surely she would come across as scary to any youngster), the other team members were apparently the only real friends she had, at least outside her own year.
What about the other team members? Firewall and Cadet knew what had happened to Donna and Outrage, but what about the others in the team? They didn’t actually know who the others such as Aura or Firestarter were in their civilian identities. However, Amethyst they could easily find – due to her manifested powers and alien countenance (and habit of hovering while covered in her crystalline armour), her identity had been publicly outed from day one, just like Outrage. She even went by the name of Amy Thyst up top. They rushed back to the year two dorm rooms on the same floor and knocked on her door. A familiar petite, purple-skinned, alien-looking female opened it – she hovered in the air so her head was level with theirs.
They were aware that Amethyst was alien and didn’t understand English very well, but they managed to make her understand that they were worried about Ashley. She immediately opened her door wide to show them that she wasn’t there with her then, with a big shark-like smile as though revealing a big secret said, “Donna!” Firewall asked, “What about Donna?” “Ashley, Donna, Donna, Ashley!” Firewall responded, “We know where Donna is, but we can’t wake her.” “Donna, Ashley, Ashley, DONNA!” she excitedly replied.
“Is there anything you can do to help, as I think Ashley and Donna are in serious trouble?” The petite alien creature smiled again, showing a set of extremely sharp teeth, and suddenly manifested crystal armour round herself and a lance in her hand, apparently also made out of crystal. The elfin Amazon instantly looked ready to do battle. “Ah no but thank…” As Cadet spoke, Amethyst flowed back into her room and hovered over her bed.
The final piece of the puzzle fell into place. Of course, the beds! Each of the dorm rooms had narrow beds, deliberately so, comfortable for one but not for two. It was a light bulb moment.
“We need to wake Donna somehow, I think they are intertwined,” continued Firewall unaware. “If only Aura was still around, she could possibly pull Donna out of her trance.”
Cadet tapped him on the shoulder, “We need to check out Donna’s room”
As they hurdled down the stairs to the senior year’s dormitory – Cadet checked his conclusion for flaws; what do you do to calm down a distressed child? You comfort them, give them a hug and possibly try to get them to sleep – either in their bed or yours. So, you cuddle her until she relaxes and calms down but of course all that emotional energy drains a child, so they might fall asleep. However, the dorm beds are fine for one but extremely hard for two to lie together, even if one is as small as Ashley, so sore muscles would eventually force you to find somewhere else to sleep and Year Five and Six have their own rooms, they don’t share, so they only have one bed per room. So once they’ve fallen asleep and are apparently no longer distressed you’d look for somewhere to crash – you’d grab a sleeping bag, get a drink and either get some sleep in the lounge or possibly use Ashley’s room. She’d still been in the lounge when say Ashley’s subconscious puts a whammy on her. “Excelsior” he muttered as they found the Donna’s door locked. Firewall immediately picked the lock and opened it. Even in the gloom of the darkened room, it was obvious that there was a small figure lying in the bed, tossing and turning as though suffering a bad nightmare. Firewall went over and tried to ensure she woke up slowly, already calmed down. About a minute later, Ashley sat up. Her skull-like image, which always appeared when using her powers, was imposed over her face and three glowing ectoplasmic pins hovered over her ever-present rag doll. The doll was buzzing with energy.
Firewall continued, talking to her quietly and calmly explaining that there was nothing to be scared of, the films weren’t real and couldn’t hurt her but somehow she seemed to have affecting people, especially her friend Donna.
Now fully awake, she explained that the only way to break them out of her possession ‘spell’ was to confront anyone she’d possessed and physically break the psychic connection using her manifested juju pins. Someone would need to restrain those she’d accidentally possessed until she’d struck them with her psychic pins to break the spell.
“I don’t have the ability to confer powers to anyone I possess, and I’ve never possessed this many people at once before. She nervously explained. Firewall continued, “How do we wake up Donna?” Ashley looked ready to cry, “The only thing I can think is to plunge a pin into her, to sever the connection. I must have accidentally controlled her as well. Will she forgive me?”
They both assured her that no one was upset at her and asked whether she had to wield the pins, or could they take them? She grabbed the floating pins and handed them over, two to Cadet and one to Firewall. They felt solid, though cold to the touch. “They remain controlled until the connection is broken. I am so sorry; I didn’t mean to do it. I was just so frightened; I’d never seen such monsters before, not even in that cage room1, or in the jungle, and I wanted, needed to defend myself.” Again, they tried to calm her down explaining it wasn’t her fault and that Chris should have known better, “those films are horrible and they’re X certificate for a reason” he explained.
Meanwhile, the three of them headed to the senior commons room and distracted the other student while Ashley took one of the ectoplasmic pins and ‘stabbed’ Donna with it, waking her up before handing the ‘pin’ back to Cadet. “That should have broken the granting of powers, but someone still needs to break the possession using the pins on everyone affected. I’m sorry, I’ve never affected this many people at once, and I don’t know of any other way to do this.”
Donna seemed to have no recollection of being possessed or of anything that had happened since she’d entered the common room. The two of them immediately headed out and towards the Chapel. Thankfully, the main three Hollywood Horrors appeared to still be inside the partially wrecked building, leaving the lesser ‘vampires’ to mill around outside.
“Chivalry is not dead, but merely sleeps,” muttered Cadet as they agreed to attack the lesser male ‘vampires’ first.
Firewall data-transferred himself into the building via the nearest external socket, appearing next to Outrage while Cadet ran across the grounds, heading for the back door, retracing his steps.
A transformed but still controlled Laurence made a grab at him, but Cadet rolled past, extending his Bo staff as he did, striking him under the chin and knocking him back. Cadet elected to continue his sprint, heading towards Christopher outside the window.
In the Chapel, Outrage was still wrecking anything she could get her hands on. Firewall ran straight at her, pin held like a dagger. He rammed it into her back, catching her unawares. The blaze in her eyes faded as she collapsed unconscious to the ground. One of the lesser male ‘vampires’ realising what had happened tried to grab him, screaming “I vant to suck your blood!” He struck Firewall’s barrier and bounced off. He responded instinctively with a laser blast at his attackers’ leg. It hit, causing so much pain he collapsed. That’s when he realised his attacker was Dimitri. Thankfully, his meta-abilities should kick in, allowing for accelerated healing.
Outside, Cadet came up against one of the remaining ‘vampires’, who managed to grab and bite him in the neck. Thankfully, his collar stopped it from piercing his skin, but it would definitely bruise. Damn, the last thing he needed was a bloody Hickey!
Cadet headed at Ces’ with the ‘hat pin of doom’, somersaulting over the lesser beings and pole-vaulting using his Bo staff passed the last ‘vampire’ standing between himself and ‘Dracula’. He used the momentum to stab Ces’ with the glowing pin, and he immediately collapsed. He’d hoped taking out the sire would have also taken out its kin, but no such luck. He spun his Bo and readied himself for the onslaught.
Nathaniel ran at him from behind, arms outstretched. Cadet dodged the assault and somersaulted across the room. He stopped, smiled as he spun the staff round his back and did a Bruce Lee gesture with his open hand, indicating that he wanted the possessed to come at him. He hated to admit it, but he was enjoying this.
Inside, Firewall unleashed a burst area blast intending to take down the two remaining ‘vampires’ – the blast incapacitated them and he rushed over to do a double stab, rendering them both unpossessed and unconscious. “I’ll leave Frankie to you, he’s too big for me,” he shouted at Cadet as he assessed his next move.
Cadet had three female ‘vampires’ and Frankie in range. He ran at Frankie, slid between his legs and stabbed him in the thigh, He dropped unconscious, exhausted but no longer possessed, leaving him to deal the three females. “Will they ever love me ever again,” he thought. They were obviously not wanting to confront the religious artefacts in the Chapel and had remained outside. Cadet appeared behind him and unleashed another of his burst energy attacks at the three ‘vampires’. The burst hit them and they collapsed as both Firewall and Cadet ran at them, stabbing each of them as they did so. That left the teachers still staggering across the field. Turning and running, it was time for a joint attack on the teachers, hoping that when they recovered they wouldn’t remember who exactly had attacked them.
That just left how to explain the vandalised and shattered Chapel, or could they just vanish into the night and leave the recovering mob to figure it out for themselves? Of course, the laser blast to Dimitri’s leg might be a clue. Firewall immediately ran back inside, gathered some miscellaneous components that just might resemble the shattered parts of a laser, and dropped the bits beside an unconscious Kilowatt.
They changed into their normal street clothes and headed back into Albion House. Donna had no memory of what had happened but given her level of exhaustion she knew her powers had been in play and of course, Ashley was fully aware of what had happened.
Perhaps an explanation could wait until the morning? That way, they would have time to come up with a suitable excuse?
They shook hands and headed to their rooms. As he walked away, Colin smiled. It had been a fun evening after all. Perhaps he should spend a bit more time round the ‘weird kids’ – they seemed to attract trouble and he had to admit, he missed that type of chaos.
1 See The Balance adventure – When Two Tribes go to War
Growing up Meta, UK-Style! 