Gazzy the Vampire Slayer

Chapter 1

"Fang, you were the one that-"

"No, Max. Not cool. Not cool at all."

"A lot of people do it, Fang. Seriously, just-"

"What's wrong with you guys?" Gazzy asked as Max and Fang walked passed him down the beach, arguing loudly. At the sound of his voice, each turned to glare at him.

"Nothing," Max hissed while Fang answered.

"She freaking bit me."

"Out of love, Fang."

"Oh, bull."

Gasman just sat there for a moment, staring at them as they now took to arguing right in front of him. Honestly, it was way too late for him to be out of his hut that he shared with Iggy, but Max and Fang were too busy with each other to notice that. Boy was he glad too. Because Max had gotten on him three times in that week alone about him not going to bed on time. It wasn't his fault that he liked to go down to the beach and work on bombs and such when everyone else was asleep.

"I'll, uh, just leave you guys then," Gasman said slowly as they continued to argue. He could see, even by the light of the moon, the mark on Fang's neck that Max had left. She had bit him hard enough to break skin. "And, uh, take these little metal parts and such that have absolutely nothing to do with bombs."

They were ignoring him though, as Max continued to yell at Fang that she had bit him out of passion or something. Gross. The ten year old just quickly packed up all his stuff before heading back to his hut.

Iggy was asleep when he got there and Gasman just left him alone as he curled up in his little pallet on the ground.

Max bit Fang? Why would Max ever bite him? Hmmm.

The Gasman really didn't think much about the biting incident from that point forth, as he had so much going on in his life at that point. He had to do his work around the island, help Fang work on his and Max's little treehouse that they were rebuilding, as well as practice for soccer (it was the only ball they had left after the football had somehow ended up punctured and unusable). Quite honestly, he thought that he was the best soccer player ever in existence, but that was just his opinion. All the kids on the island had split off into teams and at the end of every month, they would have a big tournament. His team had never won, but he just felt something inside him that month. It was finally their turn. He just knew it.

Quite honestly, he was so busy with his own life that it was a few days until the Gasman saw Max again. It was after Iggy had insisted that the Flock get together and eat a meal with one another that he did see her. Iggy and Ella were back on (they were one of those couples, or so Nudge said), so everyone was pretty much fine with meeting one night.

Gasman was with Iggy and helped him prepare the meal that day. They caught a few bunnies together and also dipped into Iggy's supply of spices and home-grown vegetables. There was a community garden on the island, but Iggy also had his own secret one that he only ever let Gasman help him with. Not that Gazzy was bragging or anything…

Nudge and Ella were the first to arrive at the little get-together. Ella immediately started going on and on about how amazing of a cook her boyfriend was and Iggy soaked it right up. Nudge just made a barfing noise, which the Gasman agreed with, wholeheartedly. Gross.

Then Angel showed up with Dylan and Total. Dylan and Angel had both been helping in the labs or something. Whatever. Gasman wasn't too concerned with either of them. Dylan could be fun sometimes, when he helped Gasman learn a new move for soccer or something, but other than that he was just like a girl. Far too much drama for his liking.

And of course eventually the King and Queen of everything (or at least that's what they thought) showed up late as usual and fighting. Honestly, that was all Max did recently was fight. Mostly with Fang though, so that was good. At least it kept the heat of Gazzy. That was all he really cared about.

"Oh, because it's my fault, Fang? Seriously?"

"It is your fault, Max, that you slept all day."

"I'm sorry that I just didn't feel like getting up."

"Oh, what? The bright sun not enough of a clue to you to get out of bed?"

Dylan looked up as Max and Fang came into the clearing, no doubt glad that they were fighting. Everyone else only groaned though. The only thing worse than Iggy and Ella fighting was Max and Fang fighting.

"What's wrong, guys?" Nudge asked cautiously as they came over to the fire pit.

"Max stayed in bed all day and for some reason that's my fault."

"I told you last night, Fang, that I had a headache. You should have woken me up when you saw that I overslept."

"Sleep's good for the body," Iggy said simply to Max before grinning. "Now, guys, I want you to try something. I cured the meat a little bit differently. Tell me if you can tell what sort of ingredient I-"

"God, Iggy, what's that smell?" Max immediately threw her hand over her nose, frowning.

Fang just made a face before taking his seat. "What are you talking about? It just smells like-"

"Is that garlic? Ew, God, it is. I'm going to seriously barf."

"Max, what is your-"

"That smell. God, I just-"

"Calm down," Iggy said with a sigh. "I'll cook you something without garlic. Just sit down."

"You sure have been in a bad mood recently," Fang remarked with a frown as Max slowly sat down, though she kept her hand over her nose. Angel came over almost immediately, staring up at Max with concern.

Gasman only sat there, staring blankly at his technical caregiver. Garlic. Garlic. Since when did Max start to hate garlic? Hmmm.

Gazzy was really confident about the tournament that month. It just so happened also to fall on Halloween, as it was October and was always held on the last day. He figured that would be a good day to win it on, as it would be funny and bragging rights would be major. Halloween wasn't very big on the island, but it was still at time for the older kids to try and scare the younger ones and for the really little kids to play pretend that they were witches or ghosts or whatever.

The Gasman's little team was pretty awesome at soccer too, if he could say so himself. Even though they had a girl on their team, it wasn't so bad. She was pretty much like a boy anyways. Kind of like Max.

It was after practice one day when the Gasman decided to go visit Max. She hadn't been around a lot recently and he was honestly worried about her. The last he had seen her was at that get-together that Iggy had and she had more or less been a big brat at that.

So, dribbling his soccer ball the entire way, the Gasman set out to go and check in on Max. He thought he'd start at her hut, on the off chance she was there. She probably wasn't though, as she usually was working in the labs or helping Fang rebuild their treehouse. She was just as busy of a person as he was, after all.

Max and Fang's hut was set off from all the others, since she thought she was so important and everything, up a little path into the forest. Whatever. No one really complained much. Max was their leader, after all. And she had been his for as long as he could remember.

He was singing softly under his breath, some song that he might have heard once, on the radio before the world tried to commit suicide and destroy itself. He really wasn't too sure on all the words, but he had the rhythm down pat, which made it sound at least decent.

"Whoa there, Gazzy," Fang said as he came walking the other way down the path, clearly coming from his hut. "Where you going, buddy?"

"To see Max," he said, coming to a stop in front of the other man. "Is she not home right now?"

"She is," Fang said slowly before letting out a slight sigh. "But she's sort of…well…busy. Something you need?"

Gazzy just shrugged. "I just wanted to see Max. What's she busy with?"

"Some stuff."

"Well, I'll just go and say hey and-"

"No can do, buddy," Fang said before reaching out to pat his shoulder. "Why don't you and I go work on your soccer skills a little, huh?"

Gasman was ecstatic at the suggestion. He always wanted to spend more time with Fang. He was, like, one of his idols, after all, being one of his technical older brothers. More so than Dylan and maybe a little bit more than Iggy, who was more of a friend than a mentor. Fang was the coolest. He was just so dark and didn't care about nothing. It was obvious why the Gasman, being such a young boy, would venerate him so.

Then the suspicion set in. Why was Fang stopping Gazzy from seeing Max? Max never worked in their hut. What could she possibly be busy with in there? And why did it have to be done inside the hut? And would Gazzy stopping by to say hey really disturb her that much? Really?

"What's Max doing?" Gazzy asked Fang as they started the other way, back down the path. "Fang?"

"Uh…well…She's not really doing anything. She's just…"

"Just what?"

"The…The sun," Fang decided on suddenly.

"Huh?"

"Her eyes are really sensitive right now," Fang explained. "She's, uh, got a headache, you know? And her eyes are sensitive. To the sun."

"So Max can't go out into the sun?"

"Yeah. Yeah." Fang nodded his head then, as if he had just come up with something groundbreaking. "The sun. Max can't be in the sun right now."

Gasman could hardly walk then as Fang led him down the path, away from the hut. Still, he was able to look over his shoulder and gulp slightly.

Things were starting to add up. And they were not looking too good.

The days were passing quickly and the Gasman immersed himself as much as he could in his soccer practices. The semi-finals would be on the thirtieth and then the finals would be on All Hollows Eve. He knew with certainty that they could get passed the first rounds, but it was the finals that had him fearful.

Still, too, in the back of Gazzy's mind, he had that little nagging bit of fear associated with the ramifications of what Max very well might be turning into. Biting people, hating garlic, and being afraid of the sun? Not to mention, Gasman had never seen Max exactly touch a cross or anything religious. The evidence was slowly pointing to one thing.

But he couldn't jump to conclusions, couldn't just go find a big stake to drive through her heart. Not by that evidence alone. It wasn't enough. He had to wait, had to see. Max would give him the benefit of the doubt if the roles were reversed, after all. He just knew she would.

It was finally a week before finals that the Gasman found the most damning piece of evidence of all. He was walking around in the caves that led down to the scientists labs on the island when he heard crying. It was coming from Dr. Martinez's lab. Fearing something was wrong with Dr. Martinez or his sister or someone else he cared about, Gazzy quickly headed that way.

When he got to Valencia's lab though, he found that it was Max, standing there with her mother, crying. Not sobbing or anything like that, no way, Max never did anything like that, but she was clearly upset.

"Max, it's okay," Dr. Martinez was saying. "It's not ideal, of course, but it's not…well, not the end of the world."

"You're just happy because now you get to, like, experiment with it," Max accused through tears as she stood there in her mother's lab. She clearly thought they were alone. Gasman just stood at the entrance, transfixed.

"Max, how could you say that? I-"

"Because I know you and the way that you-" Max stopped talking suddenly, feeling eyes on her. Turning, she saw the Gasman standing there, who immediately wished he had Fang's power of invisibility. When she saw him, Max immediately turned from him, wiping at her eyes before turning to look at him again.

"H-Hey, Gazzy," she got out as Valencia only sighed. "Did you need something?"

He could only shake his head slightly, just staring at her.

"Well…did you hear any of that?"

Gulping, he shook his head again. Max looked relieved, but still walked over to him. Too scared to move, the Gasman just stood there as she leaned down to stare him in the eyes, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"It's real important, sweetie, that you don't say anything about this to anyone, alright?" She stared right into his eyes, into his soul, as she spoke. "Can you do that for me?"

He nodded that time.

"Thank you." She patted his cheek that time. "I'll tell people eventually, of course, but when I'm ready. Only you and Fang know, alright? So don't even tell your sister. And definitely don't tell mine or Nudge. Can you do that?"

That time, instead of nodding, he stammered out, "M-Max?"

"Yes?"

"Y-You look really…pale."

That made her smile slightly before kissing his cheek. Cooties were the last of his worries as he went ridged with fear.

"Go play, Gasman," she said as she righted herself, not even acknowledging what he had said. "I have things to do, alright? See you at your little soccer tournament thing, huh?"

He only nodded slightly as Max went back over to her mother to finish speaking her. Swallowing hard as he turned, he was flooded with a thousand realizations all at once.

Max was a vampire. She knew that he knew she was a vampire. She was going to suck his blood. He just knew she was going to suck his blood.

…It was his job to stop her. He had to. Fang would never have the courage too. It wasn't only his life on the line. It was everyone on the island.

Gasman was going to have to do it. He was going to have to drive a stake right through Max's heart.

First things first though, he had to get some help.

Was working on another Halloween themed one-shot for Maximum Ride when I thought of this idea and decided to work on it instead. Sorry about the choppiness of this chapter, it's not normally how I write, but it's just how I decided to make this story go. I think it flows well though, for the most part. Thinking there will only be one more chapter and I should have it out by tomorrow, if not before. Hopefully.