A group of half a dozen scientists in lab coats huddled around a chalk summoning circle, muttering to one another as they examined it for imperfections. The candle lights were nearly unnoticeable against the bright fluorescent light of the laboratory. The candles were long, white, and tapered- and, of course, unscented. Dr. Stein had made them herself, having learned how to fashion home-made candles as a young girl from her grandmother, and years of practice had honed her craft to the point where the candles lacked all but the most minor of blemishes. The circle was perfectly round, measured and measured again to ensure that its proportions were correct. In its center was a symbol of two five-pointed stars side by side. No matter how closely the scientists looked, they could find no fault in their creation. They took a step back and redirected their gaze from the ground.
A lanky man with a heavily freckled face and a shock of red hair turned to a short woman whose dirty blonde hair was tied up into a short and tight ponytail. "You took a picture of the summoning circle already, right, Sarah?"
The woman rolled her eyes. "Only about seven times over. You know, Emmett, for a scientist, you sure suck at being observant."
The red-headed man turned towards two men with shaved heads whose features were nearly indistinguishable at first glance. "Lee, Daniel, are you two ready to write down what happens?"
One of the bald men snorted. "Oh yeah, because after a hundred tries with no reaction, this is going to be the one that miraculously works."
"Hey!" The red-headed man shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh. "It took Thomas Edison over a thousand tries to invent a working light bulb, you know."
"You're no Edison." The woman with the ponytail muttered.
The man ignored her remark, his eyes still focused on the two men. "But are you two ready just in case? Or do we have to put everything on hold so I can go get the clipboards from the storage closet for you?"
"Don't worry, Boss. We've got it all under control." The two men with shaved heads looked at one another, then rolled their eyes in near-perfect unison.
"And you all know the chant we're using this time around?"
The others in the room let out a collective sigh.
An umber-skinned woman with a black pixie cut put her hands on her hips. "You don't need to treat us like a bunch of little kids. We all have just as many letters after our name as you do, you know."
"I just want to make sure everything's all worked out! Is that so wrong?"
"Fine. Whatever. Let's just get this over with already." The raven-haired woman muttered a soft "jack-ass" under her breath, too quiet for its subject to noticed but loud enough that the pony-tailed woman heard, responding with a grin and a slight nod.
"Okay. Camera's rolling?"
A man with shaggy blue hair gave Emmett a tight-lipped smile and a thumbs up as he held up a camcorder. "Camera's rolling. We're all good to go, man."
"Alright." The red-headed man took a deep breath, then gestured towards the circle. "Here we go. This is Dr. Emmett Gray speaking on behalf of the University of Arkansas Little Rock demonology department. Mizar summoning attempt number 108 is about to commence."
The group broke into simultaneous chanting. "Te invoco, Mizar, magne daemonium, Alcor uxorem carissimam, ipsa geminum! Exaudi orationem nostram, et exaudiet vocem nostram!"
They waited. Several moments passed with nothing changing. The circle did not light up, the candles did not flicker or go out or erupt into greater flames, and nothing at all appeared in the center of the circle.
Emmett shook his head as he looked back at his desk. "Well, so much for that run-through, I guess it's time to… hey, what are you all looking at?"
A quick glance back at the summoning circle revealed what the other scientists had noticed immediately.
It may have taken a while, but a demon had, in fact, appeared within their summoning circle. But the figure that floated in front of them was not the demon they had been hoping to summon, Mizar the Twin Star, she of the fanged Cheshire grin. Instead, the one who had appeared was the other Twin Star, Alcor the Dreambender, his eyes glowing yellow and his fangs bared.
"I͖̩͉͈͙̺͂ͥ̒̀̿ ̶̏̑̑̂̓I͔̺̻͕̯͙͖̓ͪͥM̦ͤ̏̐̉̒̇̎A̎̌͌ͥͩ̅̀̚GI̋̅ͬ̑N̛ͫ̇͊͂ͯ͐̚E͎̩̫̼͖̊̑̾́̅ ̝͇̀ͥͨͅT̟̜̤̱͓̈̊H̱ͤ̃ͧͮͅA̢̘T̜̯̻͛͢ ̯̬̓͜Ĩͣ̓̇ͩ̅ ͯ̆͋̍͊̇̎͏̻̮̤N͙͍͚̱͑͛̄̈́͝ͅE̢̖̣̹̫̭͉̯͛͆̓ͣ̓̆E̺͓͖͙̻̺͇ͥD̺͖͇̳̏̍ͮ̽̈́͟ ̜̙̣̫̥̯͙ͤ͋̋ͧ̕N̟̰̭̽ͬO̝̭̭̣ͧ̌̆͑̀ͧ͆̀ ͙͓̫̇̌̅ͨ́I̥̐N̤̳͈̯͎̙̟T̸̼̮͉͓̑R̭̮͉͐ͩͯ̓͝O̧̙͈̞̬ͤ͑̆͗͒̓̍D͔̱̪̜̻ͯͦ͊͋̈́U͙̱̿͜C̸̯̟̰͆͌ͨ̊T̨̖͕̻̹̹̭̣̓̃͌ͪ̃͒̚I̮̱̗̭̤ͤ͂̓ͮ̈́̂͞O͓̰̞͎̎̅̄ͮ͗Ṇ̰̌̀̓ͥ.̯̽̿ͬ͝"
Dr. Sarah Stein was the first one to gather up the courage to speak up. "Alcor. We're a group of researchers from the University of Arkansas Little Rock demonology department, and we were actually attempting to summon Mizar, not you…"
"I̱̲͎̋͘ ̜̩̪̘ͮK̗͎͔ͯ̑͝N͍͙͚̮ͯ͑̃͊̿̂O̳̱̪͟W͎̖̆ ̙͚̻͐̚Ẁ̠̹̻̗̹̔̏͞H͙ͮͦ̐A͖͈͍͔̞͙ͬ̽ͅT̙͕̹̩͇̝̔̄ͅ ̘̜͍̦͋͛Y̷̪̺͇͍̖̳̤͛O̷͓̮̤̗̒̑̋͋U̸͕͚̯̗ͬ̉́ͥ ̹̯W̵͈̤̏ͦ̀E̢̻͍Ṟ̥̞̳͕̌ͨ̍̅E̝̤͈͊ͩ̄ ̪̺̥̯̖͛ͫ̂̉̄͋ͅṰ͇̲̟ͬͯͯ̎ͥ̇ͯR̡̹͓̉̏̑ͩ͂̈́ͅYͯ̅I͔̹̻͙͔ͪ͛̔̚̚N̹̙ͩ̌ͤG̘̲̲̦ ͈̌̐́͜ͅT̬͇̮̮̦̪͗̉͑ͅOͭ͑̓ͤ ̰͙͚̍͋̌̍̾ͥ̀D̸͇̫̫͑̂̑̈́ͥO̥͊!̣̰͚̜̠̂̽̿͐ͥ̑" The demon rushed towards the woman, making her jump as he stopped abruptly at the limits of the summoning circle.
"Right, right, of course you do, it's just-"
His wide grin faded away, turning into a slight frown. "But you can't summon her, you hear me? N͒̔̈́̆̇ͨ̾͏̳̤̺̣O̙̗̩͚̞̗͖̾ͧB͕̫̮̝̘͌ͨ͐Ŏ̼͍̻̠D̥̤̭̦̽ͭ̉ͥY̠̼̕ can! Not even I, A͓ͫ̅ͩ͛l̯̜͙̣̼͈ͫ̏ͨ͐ͅc̲͎̥̜̯ͣͨ̂ͨ̐͘ͅo͉̫͈̥̞͚̦͝r̠̙͍̔̌̈́͂̓͜ ̬͈͉̖͜t̛̞̮̠̖ͯ͋ͬͬ͗h̟̹̼͉ͧ͋͆̃͋͗ͅe̳̘͚̫͎ͮͦ̍̆̊̆ͅ ̲̭̹̯͈̞͖̾D̨̝̦̖̹̘̭̽̈́͂ͪ́ͯͯr͋̋͑͑̇̚e͗ͭ̓̚͝ą͔̲ͤ́͋ͭͅm̟̙͎̩͎̻͗ͯͬ͊ͪbͮ͏͖̪͕̘̹̥é͙̓ͧ̂ṅ̎͗̋ͧͦ͋̀d̦̭̺͑̀̌̀ͣ̓ͣ͡ȅ̘̤̞̟ͩ̎͑͘r̅̄̂͋̓͗ͬ͏̜̟̯̥̙, can bring her here, let alone a group of measly scientists like you! Mizar is not here, and you can't make her come back, so you lot just need to S͖͚̎͐̓̆̿ͪT̿̋͆̄̑͑ͤ͏̺̤Ö̠̪̲̟̤͉̞̔ͤ͒̔̋̚̕P̋͛ͩͮ ̖̭̬͓ͅͅT͙̎ͣ̈̈́R͍̠̞̜̬̬̂̿̒̒̔ͣ͞Y͔̟̭͈ͭ̚I̬̝̽̊̅͆ͦ̈̀͠N̩̙̫͙̭͐͋̏̄͐̈́G̱!̥̣̯̫̘͉̌̕ Now, unless you have some other reason for me to stick around, I'm going to pop off and deal with somebody who might actually be worth my time!"
Emmett Gray raised a single finger, his hand shaking, his eyes wandering from side to side while trying to avoid eye contact with the demon. "Well, maybe we could make a deal with you about this, where you tell us what we're doing wrong in trying to summon Mizar and in exchange we could-"
Alcor narrowed his eyes, and the demon's mouth once again took on the shape of that wide grin that showed off his sharp fangs. "Ņ̶̬́ͦ̒́O̧̤̮͕͙̲̙̼̝ͩ̌́͡!̷̛̲͈̝̳̜͔͕̾͊ͦ̈͊ͮͪ"
And, with a flash of yellow light, the demon left the room, leaving behind only a puff of smoke and a smudged circle lined with extinguished, deformed candles.
The group exchanged nervous glances as the room returned to silence.
Finally, Emmett cleared his throat. "You got that on camera, right? Please tell me you got that on camera."
The blue-haired man clicked a few buttons on the camcorder until it lit up and emitted a soft duplicate of the red-headed man's earlier words. "Sure did!"
"And you two. Daniel, Lee. Write that down. For the love of God, write that down!"
"We did already! Jeez!"
"Okay. Okay, good." Emmett took a few deep breaths, and the conversation entered another brief lull.
After a moment, Sarah Stein, who had been biting her lip and wiping her chalk-covered hands on her lab coat, stopped fidgeting and ended the silence. "But if Alcor showed up this time, that has to mean we're on the right track!"
The group broke into a series of wide grins.
"Now, are you all ready to start working on summoning attempt number 109?"