After leading Raven back to her house, Bloodgood had gone back to school. Later, she had asked Cleo if she and her friends could help make Raven feel welcome for as long as she was there. The Egyptian princess agreed, told her friends about Raven during lunch and were looking forward to meeting her after fearleading practice that day.
Unsurprisingly, Spectra was dying (or whatever word was appropriate in her case) to get the scoop on the normie girl that had showed up at their school and stopped Manny in his tracks. She had learned about Cleo being near her when she had first been seen and asked the Egyptian princess about interviewing the unexpected visitor. Cleo had agreed to this, mostly because it show the school that they had nothing to fear from Raven which would be good depending on how long she'd be staying.
At lunch that day, Cleo had gathered with her usual group of friends plus the twins to share the plan with them.
"I always like meeting new people," Draculara said in her usual upbeat tone.
"This is all well and good," Purrsephone began, "but Toralei's sudden absence creates a few problems. For one thing, her motorcycle probably shouldn't stay in the school parking lot while she's gone."
"Not a problem," Meowlody said. "I've ridden it a few times. I can get into her locker, grab the keys and get it back to her house."
"Well that settles one thing, but someone has to tell Toralei's pa…..," Purssephone paused as her eyes widened.
"Not it," both twins said at the same time and then stared at each other for a while.
"Since I'm taking the motorcycle, you should tell them," Meowlody said.
"You're going to be there any way, so you should tell them," Pursephone argued. "More importantly, I don't want to." Meowlody hissed at this.
"I'll do it if you two stop acting like kittens," Clawdeen said.
"Thank you," the twins said at once.
"Are you sure it's a good idea for you to be the one to break the news to Toralei's parents?" Draculara asked.
"I've met them before," Clawdeen said.
"You have?" Cleo said in surprise. "What are they like?"
"What you'd expect," Clawdeen lied.
"You're very brave," Purrsephone said. "I'm too scared to tell them, just like I'm scared of what could be happening to Toralei. She's alone, in a completely different world with no idea of anything works. And she has this bad habit of almost dying when she goes to new places without us."
"You give her too little credit," Clawdeen said reassuringly. "If Toralei survived what happened to her in Syria and Japan, she can make it through this."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Draculara said. "How close are you to Toralei?"
"Kind of close," Clawdeen answered. "I'm just doing my part to keep the truce going."
...
It was around five o'clock at Monster High. Fearleading practice had ended and Cleo was gathering a group to go meet Raven. The group was made up of Cleo, Frankie, Draculara, Ghoulia, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Abbey, Spectra (who was greatly anticipating getting the exclusive with this extra-dimensional visitor), Purrsephone and Jackson (everyone figured that seeing another human would be good for Raven). They all made their way to Bloodgood's house. When they got there, Bloodgood went in while everyone waited outside and found Raven asleep on her couch. After being dropped off, Raven had practiced her guitar and fighting moves for about two hours and then fell asleep on the couch.
Bloodgood shook Raven awake. She sat up and gathered her thoughts.
"There are some people I'd like you to meet," Bloodgood said. Raven agreed to this and everyone walked into the living room.
"Hi, I'm Frankie," the patch-work girl happily introduced herself.
"I'm Clawdeen," the werewolf fashionista said. Ghoulia groaned something that Raven didn't understand. "This is Ghoulia."
"Abbey," the yeti girl said in her typically short manner.
"I'm Lagoona," the Ausie sea monster greeted.
"I'm Spectra," the ghost reporter said as she floated over and started recording on her tablet. "So tell us about yourself and how you came to be here."
"We're not at that part yet, Spectra," Purrsephone said then faced Raven. "Hi again. Don't remember if I brought this up last time but my name is Purrsephone. And this is Jackson." Raven's eyes widened when she looked at the half-monster.
"What is it?" Jackson asked.
"You look so much like this guy I know," Raven answered. Indeed, except for Jackson's blonde highlights and piercing, he could almost be Dexter's twin. In fact, he looked more like Dexter's twin than Dexter's actual twin, Darling. "What are you doing at a school for monsters?"
"It's a long story," Jackson said, "but the short version is that I'm half monster."
"He's also my boyfriend, so keep that in mind," Purrsephone said in her usual manner of stating whatever came to mind.
"Wait, he's your boyfriend?" Raven asked and the werecat nodded yes. "And your sister's dating that giant minotaur guy?" Purrsephone nodded yes again.
"And he used to shove me into a locker a lot," Jackson added. "Things were really weird at first, but it's gotten... less weird since then."
Only in relation to Manny, Purrsephone thought. While the situation with Manny and her sister had sorted itself out, there was still the problem of how Purrsephone had a sort of 'shared custody agreement' with Jackson between herself, Frankie and Holt, who were now dating as well. It was very awkward but Purrsephone felt that being with Jackson was worth it.
"There are a few things I want to bring up," Raven said then turned to Lagoona. "That is some accent you have: where are you from?"
"Australia," Lagoona answered.
"Never heard of it," Raven answered flatly then turned to Frankie. "Exactly what kind of monster are you?"
"I'm the daughter of Frankenstein's monster," Frankie replied.
"I'll ask for more information about that later," Raven said then faced Draculara. "And what of monster are you?"
"I'm a vampire," Draculara answered with a cheery tone.
"You're strigoi," Raven said in fright as she took a few steps away from Draculara and transformed into Kamen Rider Nocturnal once more, not bothering with the traditional cry of 'henshin'. "No way you're gonna drink me through this."
"Now Raven," Cleo began calmly, "you have nothing to be scared of. Draculara isn't even one of these bok choy things."
"Strigoi, and technically I am," Draculara corrected. "It's an old Romanian word for vampire. I haven't called that in almost five hundred years." Draculara finished with a nostalgic look.
"More importantly," Frankie interjected, "Draculara doesn't drink blood. She doesn't even eat meat: she's vegan."
"Vegan," Nocturnal repeated and then laughed uproariously for a few seconds. "Next you're gonna tell me that she doesn't have a stinger."
"A what?" Draculara asked.
"You know, the six foot tentacle things that shoot out of their mouths," Nocturnal explained and elicited confused and shocked looks from the ghouls.
"Yeah, vampires here don't have those," Clawdeen said with her hand on her hip.
"Oh," Nocturnal said as she dispelled her armor. "I am sorry about that. I had a bad experience with a Strigoi once. My mom, who was very evil, once invited over one: a man Einworst or Octhurst, something like that. Anyway, mom offered one of the castle servants as a hors d'oerve to the man. That's how I found out how Strigoi can drink a grown man to death in about five seconds. Did I mention I was seven when this happened?"
"You didn't," Purrsephone said with her eyes somewhat widened.
"So, yeah, sorry for that," Raven said awkwardly.
"Apology accepted," Spectra said enthusiastically as she floated over to Raven and resumed recording on her tablet. "Now tell us about yourself."
She's definitely this school's Blondie, Raven thought. She then began telling Spectra about how things worked at Ever After High and her role in the school's plans. She then talked about how she was watching stuff on her mirror when she got zapped to Monster High.
"Fascinating," Spectra said. "Now about what happened with Manny earlier: I talked with Meowlody and Purrsephone earlier and they explained how you're a type of Japanese superhero. How did that happen?"
"I learned about the Kamen Riders some time ago," Raven began. "There is a consistent pattern of how the mon... kaijin they fight are tied to the same source as their powers."
"Kaijin?"
"It's a Japanese word for monster. It occurred to me that I should be more selective with that word. Anyway, I felt that there were significant parallels between the riders fighting monsters from the same source as their powers and how I have dark magic that works best when I'm evil but I don't want to be evil. On something of a whim, I decided to see if I could use my magic to give myself rider abilities and it worked."
"So you're basically a huge fangirl?" Spectra asked.
"Yes and no," Raven answered. "I've been in one major battle before, so I feel that I've proven myself as a Kamen Rider and that I'm more than just a fangirl."
"Okay," Specrta said. "Now Cleo mentioned that you know C.A. Cupid. How is Cupid these days?"
"Cupid is fine," Raven replied. "She has a mirrorblog where she tries to help people with their romantic problems and is pretty universally well-liked throughout the school."
"That sounds right," Spectra said, glad that Cupid had fit in at this other school.
From that point on, Spectra asked some rather padding-like questions such as favorite color, favorite food and if she had been seeing anybody at Ever After High. Raven answered these questions and the interview ended.
"Now Raven," Bloodgood began, "since we don't know how long you're going to be here, you need something to do and a way to learn about this world. I think you should attend classes at Monster High while you're here."
"Thank you," Raven said, very grateful for being accepted in this way.
"What about your sleep schedule?" Clawdeen asked.
"That shouldn't be a problem," Raven said. "I can make myself sleep whenever and for however long I want. It's a basic spell magic users on my world learn to counteract insomnia, which is a common side-effect of tampering with magical artifacts."
"That's handy," Cleo said. "As for living arrangements, you are welcome to live with me. We'll go there after a brief stop at Draculara's place to raid her closet for some clothes, because you're currently overdressed for day-to-day stuff here."
"This isn't that dressed up by my world's standards," Raven said.
"Your universe sounds fabulous," Draculara said joyfully.
…
It was now morning at Ever After High. Maddie had sent an urgent hext message to two of Raven's friends telling them to come to her dorm room before going to breakfast, feeling that they deserved to know about the current situation with Raven. There was a knock at the door to the dorm room she shared with Kitty.
"So glad you could make it," Maddie said cheerfully as she welcomed C.A. Cupid and Cerise Hood into the dorm room.
"What's going on Maddie?" Cerise asked. "Why was it so important that we come see you?"
"We have a little problem with Raven," Maddie said awkwardly as she rubbed the back of her head. "It's probably best if I show you."
This is gonna be good, Kitty thought to herself as she watched Maddie take them to the corner of the dorm where Toralei was sleeping. Upon seeing the sleeping werecat, Cupid's eyes widened in recognition while Cerise was simply confused.
"There was an accident last night," Maddie began explaining. "Raven was watching something on her mirror and then she switched places with Toralei here."
"We need to get Raven back," Cerise said with a hint of panic and loudly enough to stir Toralei from her catnap.
"About that," Maddie began as Toralei woke up and noticed two new people.
"Who are you?" Toralei asked as she stood up and then took a closer look at Cupid. "You kind of look like this one ghoul who used to go to my school."
"I am that one ghoul, Toralei," Cupid said as she crossed her arms. "It's me: Cupid."
"Cupid," Toralei repeated in shock, deeply confused as to the vast physical differences between what she looked like now compared to her time at Monster High. "What did they do to you?" Toralei asked in fear as she took a step back.
"They didn't do anything," Cupid said indignantly, then looked at Cerise and Maddie, noticing that they were confused about the recent statements. "When I came to this school, the portal I used was enchanted so that my physical appearance would change to something that would help me fit in this world.
"So you haven't always looked like this?" Cerise asked.
"That's putting it mildly," Toralei said, then walked up to Cupid and touched one of her wings. "And what is with these feather dusters coming out of your back? The protruding rib-cage look was creeperific."
Cerise, Maddie and Kitty looked at Cupid with very confused expressions. Well, Kitty's eyes were confused while she maintained her signature grin.
"It's a long story," Cupid in a slightly frustrated tone. "More importantly, Raven will be fine if she's Monster High: the school is all about accepting people for who they are and there's this one group of fairy friendly ghouls there."
"That's great," Cerise said, "but we need to tell Headmaster Grimm about this so he can take steps to get Raven back and get you back home," she finished looking at Toralei.
"Not just yet," Toralei responded. "Kitty and Maddie have told me about all about how this school forces its students to fit predetermined roles. This disgusts me in ways I can't accurately describe," she said with a angry scowl. "Before I go back, I want to take a swing at the status quo here. I wrote up a manifesto last night and will distribute it tonight. Then comes the fun part: I'm going to show this school that despite it's best attempts at repression, they can't control everything."
"How are you going to do that?" Cupid asked nervously.
"I'm gonna hit this school with a wave of pranks the likes of which it's never seen," Toralie answered with a wide-eyed look and a grin that almost matched Kitty's.
I'm going to enjoy that part, Kitty thought with an even wider grin than usual, which nobody at EA High thought was possible.
"That's your plan?" Cerise asked skeptically. "A pranking spree."
"It's not just a pranking spree," Toralei began. "It's part of a larger campaign of psychological warfare: the only kind of warfare I'm capable of waging right now, which is just as well. Soldiers can be killed, weapons can be broken but ideas are much harder to destroy."
"That's true," Cupid said. "You can't publicly execute a belief or throw an opinion into the dungeon for the rest of its life."
"So I need you two," Toralei said to Cerise and Cupid, "to keep this all to yourselves for one. After I've done what I want, I'll turn myself in and then we'll get Raven back."
"All right," Cerise said. Toralei's plan to challenge the status quo seemed pretty well thought out. Cerise didn't really care for the way things were done either and it sounded like Raven would be fine until they got to her, so letting Toralei have her fun seemed like a okay idea.
"But what will we tell people when they start wondering where Raven is?" Cupid asked.
"As little as possible," Kitty said.
"This is all good," Cerise said, "but we need to get to breakfast while there's still food."
"That's fine: I want to get back to sleep," Toralei said, then went back to the corner she'd been in earlier and resumed sleeping.