Tanwen was bored.

Bored as hell. She flicked a piece of paper from one hand to the other on the desk in front of her, chin resting on the cold wood. Beside her Kenny McCormick was reading a porn magazine under his own table, which she had trouble averting her eyes from.

God, could men really do that...?

Wait, why was Kenny even looking at that? Oh, thank God, he turned the page.

She returned her attention to flicking the piece of paper, just as a larger crumpled-up A4 sheet landed in front of her nose, with the words "HEY TAFFY!" scrawled on it in messy handwriting. Tanwen shot an apprehensive look at her best friend Kid, who gave her a grin as wide as Jupiter, then unfolded it and read it under the table.

'Yo, yo, Taffy! Sorry I couldn't talk to you until break, but I have this super speshul cool news! I know where the massive ultra-fantastic party is that everyone is talking about!'

Tanwen scrawled 'Where? Tell me!' on the bottom of the paper and flicked it back. Kid caught it neatly and opened it eagerly.

She scribbled something then flicked it back, grin widening to impossible lengths.

'You've got five guesses'

Tanwen bit her lip then scribbled down 'one of the warehouses, Kenny's garage, town hall, theme park, Stark's Pond.'

Flick.

'Ha-ha, right on! It's warehouse 99, the really old one down on the industrial state. It's fancy dress, too'

Flick.

'Pfffft yeah. Hey, wanna play Guess what everyone else is wearing instead of doing these math problems?'

Flick.

'Hell yes! I bet Cartman wears a leotard.'

Tanwen burst into hysterical laughter and only just managed to shove the note up the sleeve of her leather jacket before Mr. Garrison turned around with the most furious possible face a teacher could have.

"Care to share what you find so funny, Miss. Drachen?" he said, the calm before the storm.

"I don't find anything funny, sir," replied Tanwen with a perfectly straight face. "I was simply unable to suppress joy at completing a particularly difficult problem, sir."

Mr. Garrison couldn't find an answer to that, and so returned to the board to scrawl more crap about Miley Cyrus being a slut on it. Not willing to risk a lunchtime detention to pass another note, Kid gave Tanwen the thumbs up. Tanwen grinned in return before returning to playing with her scrap of paper and avoiding Kenny's magazine.

Tanwen slid into her place beside Kid, Angelica and Addy at the canteen table, having begged a larger than normal portion of fish and chips off Chef. As always Angelica was hitting on any boy who walked past whom was unfortunate enough to have a decent backside, whilst Addy read a Biology book with a fork full of salad halfway to her mouth, and Kid wolfing down her own lunch like a ravenous dinosaur.

Angelica had been voted the perviest person in the group the previous weak, with Tanwen coming in a very, very close second, and she was certainly living up to her standards. Kyle Brofloski yelped as he walked past, and Angelica leapt back and slapped his backside with one hand. Kid giggled. "Dude, I wish you'd seen his face then."

"I wasn't looking at his face," said Angelica with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows, and then returned to eating her dinner.

"So," said Addy, finally realising her fork was in midair, "we're all going to this party tomorrow, yeah?"

"Most definitely. I can't wait to find my costume! Yo, Tanwen, what are you going as?" Kid's eyes sparkled with a glitter of mischievousness that the other three missed.

"Red dragon, duh."

"A kitty," said Angelica without hesitation.

"Eh. I'll go as a dog, then," said Addy quietly.

"Awesome! I'm going as a sunflower!" beamed Kid. The other three just gave her a long, hard look.

"You've got to be kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not." Kid leaned forwards. "And do you know what's even better about this party?"

The other three leaned towards her, apart from Addy, whom was picking at her salad. "What?"

"You can't tell anyone else who you are. You've got to disguise yourself so no-one can tell, and if they guess, you have to host the next party!"

"Damn! But I just told you what I'm going as!" whined Angelica. "That's no fair, Kid!"

"Calm down, Angelica! No one else but us four heard each other say that. So we've gotta group together, right?"

"Super awesome right," said Tanwen, nodding. "I've got different coloured masks in my bedroom from last Halloween we can use. No-one will find out who we are – no-one!"

The next day – a Friday – dragged past like fingernails scraping down a blackboard. The entire body of Y9 students in South Park Elementary went about their classes with a low buzz the teachers had learnt to fear, certain friend groups talking to each other in low whispers and eyeing anyone who came near with distrust.

When the hometime bell finally rang, Kid announced the end of the school day with an almighty scream of "PARTY TIME!" leapt up onto her desk and ran out of the classroom with a hoard of yelling students following.

Tanwen, Kid, Angelica and Addy rushed to Tanwen's house after escaping out of their windows at precisely eight o'clock that night, their costumes safely hidden away in makeshift shopping bags or backpacks. Tanwen opened her window quietly and handed them the half-face masks as they clambered in. They got dressed in the dark, afraid of alerting Tanwen's parents.

"Remembers, guys," whispered Kid quietly, adjusting the row of bright yellow petals around her face and sliding her mask into position. "Disguise your voices, and do not give yourselves away. Or Angelica will sneak into your room at night and molest you."

"Oi!" argued Angelica quietly. The other three muffled their giggles with the back of their gloves and the four friends slid from Tanwen's bedroom window, landing with a soft thud in the snow below and making their way down to the industrial state.

The thumping bass of music more commonly found in nightclubs greeted the four as they approached the door of warehouse 99. When they opened it, they were almost blasted of their feet. They hurried inside and slammed the door shut.

It seemed every single student from Y9 had come to the party, dressed up in every variation of costume humanly possible. Someone had secretly rigged the rafters of the old warehouse with flashing dance lights, and a row of tables to the right of the hall were loaded with refreshments, strobe lights, wristbands, sparklers and God knows what else. The left and centre of the warehouse was filled by a large dancefloor, whilst what looked like a row of beaten-up sofas were being used as a lounge room near to the door. At the far side of the warehouse, a tall, unidentifiable boy dressed in shimmering silver tinfoil and white ribbons worked at the DJ table, his laptop logged onto Grooveshark, attached to speakers and blasting out music of his choice at a prodigious rate.

Kid, dressed as a tall, creepy sunflower, Tanwen, dressed fully in a red leather dragon suit with scales, clawed gloves, a spiked hood and even a pointed tail, Angelica dressed in a rather skimpy black cat costume, and Addy dressed in a furry brown and white dog costume, shuffled warily into the almost-empty lounge room and sat down.

"Whoa," said Angelica, careful to disguise her voice. "Whoever is hosting this party went full-on."

"I bet it's Token." Addy was quiet. "He's the only one rich enough to do this."

"Oh well." Tanwen stood up, and went over to the dancefloor. "Might as well go dance."

Just as she stepped into the fray, the door behind her opened with a quiet creak. Those who heard it turned and immediately stopped dancing, their eyes wide.

Confused by the group of about sixteen people around her that had stopped dancing or just generally chatting to each other, Tanwen turned on her heel, eyebrows raised under her red mask.

There, standing in the open doorway with his hands crossed over his chest and a serious expression on his masked face, was Mysterion.

Tanwen swallowed and froze in place. Was he here to alert the police and arrest them all? The last thing she needed was to be involved in some sort of student brawl. Her parents were thick enough as it was.

Mysterion stood there for a moment, as if spreading fear throughout the crowd, and then turned and shut the door. He sent a hard glance at the small crowd who was staring at him, and they turned away, muttering amongst themselves. He passed by Tanwen on his way to the tables and gave her the briefest of looks.

His eyes were blue.

Tanwen moved aside and went back to her friends. "Whoa, Dragoon," said Kid, using the name they had sorted out for Tanwen. "That was freaky."

"Yeah." Tanwen shot a glance after the South Park vigilante, scratching the bridge of her nose in confusion. "I wonder what he's doing here, though. That might not even be the real Mysterion. I mean... Mysterion retired, like, four years ago after that weird Cthlulu thing."

"It's a good costume, if it isn't him," said Addy, nodding her head. "And if it is, we're probably all screwed."

"Or it means he's back," said Angelica quietly. "This probably means something terrible has happened."

Tanwen swallowed nervously, clasping her hands on her lap as she sat down. "Let's just put it behind us," she said. "Let's come up with some song ideas so we can ask the DJ. Sunflower?" she asked politely, looking at her friend.

Kid grinned. "Oh, I have a wonderful song idea," she said with the creepiest possible grin.