Chapter 2

Kyra was pacing in the living room of the tower the next day, "training" the 6 "new recruits". "And another thing, something's always going on around here so there's no such thing as 'a moment of peace'." She then noticed that Arra was writing everything down. "Are, you don't have to take notes on this."

"Oh, got it." Arra started writing one last thing down. "Don't…have to…take notes on this…" She put up her pad.

[Kyra looks at camera.]

"She was always such a keener," Darryl explained.

Kyra rolled her eyes, half-smiling. "OK, now about the Dark Side…"

"Oh!" Nathan spoke up, "Can I get them up to speed?" Kyra gestured to go ahead and he walked over there. "We know nothing. You are now up to speed."

"Nathan!" Kyra scolded.

"Well, it's true! All we know is that Deirdre and Cassandra are collecting souls for some ritual and have 4 Vampires on their side. That's it! We don't know who sired the Vamps, what the Vamps' powers are, what Deirdre and Cassandra are planning on doing, or even if it's more than the 6 of them. Who knows what they could be doing right now?"

I'll tell you what they were doing right then: meeting their new recruits…

Cassandra was tapping her foot impatiently as Deirdre paced.

Josephine, her head in her hand and her elbow resting on her knee, slowly turned her head to look at Cassandra. "Dude!"

Cassandra stopped tapping her foot. "Sorry."

There was then a pounding on the door to the warehouse.

Deirdre went over and opened the door to let in Jeff and another guy and a girl. "OK, wanted: long introduction. Reward: joining the Dark Side." She closed the door. "Yo, Big Bow, you first."

The girl glared at her, her hands on her hips. The girl had on a lavender-pink frilled dress that reached just below her knees, pink glitter flip-flops, a dark purple velvet belt tied in a huge bow, and a rainbow headband with a sunset bow tied to it. The girl fluffed her dark brown hair, took off her headband, and blinked so that her big, bright, chocolate brown eyes started flickering in a dozen different colors.

Deirdre grabbed her wrist. She looked at her palm to see a message burning itself into her skin: "Right back at you." Deirdre looked at the girl.

The girl flared the skirt of her dress and the message disappeared. "Got 3 names for it: engraving, messaging…burning." Deirdre just looked at her. "Nice way to send the enemy a message. Name's Priscilla."

"Hmm…fiery, painful, strikes fear into their hearts. You're in." Deirdre looked at the other boy. "And you?"

The dark-haired boy took off his sunglasses to reveal that his eyes were entirely black. They glowed eerily and Cassandra was tugged out of her chair by an invisible force, falling to the floor.

Cassandra got up. "Why am I always the punching bag?"

The boy smiled and his eyes faded to entirely golden-white. "I'm Axel. And the tug-o'-war at full-blast could've snapped your neck."

Cassandra grabbed her neck.

"That's it, you're in," Deirdre said without hesitation.

"So what's our current plan…er, insidious plot?" asked Priscilla.

Deirdre smiled. "Allow me to get you up to speed: the Loonatics had a side team called L-Force and their most powerful member is cursed to turn evil whenever he experiences pain. So all we need to do now is get him all fired up until he stays that way."

"And how do you intend we do that?" asked Axel, putting his sunglasses back on.

"I've got a plan," she said with an English accent. Then she spoke normally: "But first thing first, I'll be right back." She ran off to the back room.

Jeff, Priscilla, and Axel looked at the rest of the Dark Side.

"Secret room," Roscoe explained, "We're not allowed back there."

"No, but we are," Meredith gloated, "Excuse us." With that, she pulled Loraine, Astrid, and Josephine into the back room.

Deirdre walked into the room to see Wake lying on the floor with her eyes closed again. "Alright, mistress," said Deirdre as the 4 Vampires came in, "Guess what?"

"We have 3 new members."

"You're a good guesser."

"I'm watching." Wake opened her eyes and sat up on the floor. "I also know that 'L-Force' is back with 6 new members."

"Heh?"

"Whoa, we are falling behind," Astrid said.

"Final count: 10 to 16," Loraine said.

"Not after we've got our hands on the death-bringer," Deirdre corrected, "And that time will come soon. I've-"

"We know!" Josephine interrupted, "You got a plan! What we're not clear on is what the plan is."

"You just wait and see…" Deirdre said eerily. She went back into the main room.

Astrid whistled. "Wow. She is gonna get us all dusted." BONK! She fell over.

Wake smiled and called the rock back. "I've wanted to do that for weeks. You know, I'm starting to think this thing is lucky."