"..." Speech

'...' Quote

'Hi' Thought

"Learn your place!" Inner Moka through Rosario

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC, Zack belongs to Lewamus Prime

Alien Watch in a Monster School

The Medusa's Kiss

Friday: Present

Moka sadly trudged down the gloomy corridors of the academy towards the infirmary. She had been on the verge of tears for hours, only able to keep them back by the small amount of resolve that she had left. Clasping the Rosario in her hand, she quickened her pace.

Upon reaching the door, the vampire girl found herself hesitating, recoiling her hand from the handle. She didn't want to have to look at what was on the other side again. She felt her heart would break if she did. However, Moka knew this was something she had to do. Steeling herself, she opened the door and walked into the dark room.

The room was devoid of life, not a moving soul inside. In the right corner of the room, a still figure was lying down on a bed. Moka approached the figure slowly, trying fruitlessly to keep back her tears.

What was strange about the occupant was that it was a stone statue. Its arms were positioned strangely. The right arm was frozen in place just above its chest, the fingers positioned as if it had been holding a small object loosely whilst the left arm was by the body's side but at a right angle, as if holding another person's waist. Even stranger, the statue was wearing the male academy uniform.

The statue was extremely well crafted, not a detail had been left out. Each hair on the statue's head was incredibly well designed, making each lock look real. The statue appeared to have been designed with it eyes closed, giving the appearance it was sleeping. A smile was on the statues face, adding to the peaceful look.

Moka sadly looked over the grey work of art, taking in all of its features. Slowly, she moved to sit down in a chair on the left hand side of the bed. She remained there for a few minutes, silently staring at the statue, before her eyes trailed down towards the statues left wrist where there was a black and green, futuristic, watch with an hour glass symbol on the face.

'Why?' Moka thought in misery. 'Why did this have to happen?'

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Sunday: Six days earlier

"Bring it, Zack!"

"You're on, Bro!"

In a small alcove behind the Yokai dorms, Christian and Zack stood ten meters apart, both ready to fight. Both were dressed in track suit bottoms. Christian had a white, form fitting t-shirt on whilst Zack wore a black tank top. Christian's bottoms were black with green stripes running up to the waist. Zack's bottoms were black with red flaming patterns around the legs.

The teens charged at each other, colliding in the middle where both attempted to swivel kick the other, missing each other by milli metres. Once they steadied themselves, Zack threw a punch at Christian's stomach attempting to wind him, however the teen managed to block it and threw Zack's arm up, using the opportunity to push his opponent back. But Zack was too fast, bending backwards and used one arm perform a back flip, kicking out his legs at the same time, catching Christian's face. The wild haired teen landed cleanly on his feet, already in another fighting stance. Christian, having recovered from the face attack, glared at his friend.

"Show off."

The other boy merely smirked in return. "Sore loser." He charged at Christian again. Zack was upon him in a second, throwing a variety of punches, jabs and kicks that put Christian on the defensive immediately.

"I. Thought. You. Were. Better. Than. This," Zack said between his attacks.

"Just. Biding. My time."

"For?"

"This!" Christian ducked underneath a high kick from Zack. He then spun on the ground, using his right leg to knock Zack's foot out from under him and knocking him to the ground. "Not so fun being the guy on the ground now is it?"

Looking up, Zack laughed. "Nope, but you were there first," he responded, using his hands to propel himself back to his feet. "Ready for round two?"

From the side lines, Moka, Kurumu and Yukari watched with anticipation as their friends sparred against each other. It was two days after Gin had been revealed as the peeping tom who had been stalking the girls' dorm at night. Things were a little better for Christian now. Some of the people who had once insulted him had actually apologised for treating him so badly. It was only a small number but Christian was happy he was being seen in a better light.

The pair had finally decided to have a spar. Apparently it was compulsory to have club activities at the weekend, not that anyone minded. They liked being in the Newspaper club together as it gave them the chance to hang out. Everyone still had negative opinions of Gin, especially Zack, who pretty much hated the werewolf's guts, but they were going to try and give him a fresh start.

As Moka her friends, her gaze couldn't help but wander to Christian. She remembered that she still needed to talk to Christian about becoming a secondary user for the Omnitrix. She didn't really fully understand how it worked, but apparently she would be able control it via voice commands. It was this thought that also made her remember the second part of her conversation with Max Tennyson.

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"It's about what's going to happen next week," the old man replied.

"What is it Mr Tennyson, I'd do anything if it will help Christian and his mission," Moka responded, her hand over her heart.

Seeing her reaction, Max chuckled. "I'm sure you would. You are a good friend Moka but this actually has nothing to do with his mission."

"Then what is it you want me to do?" Moka asked, a little confused.

"You see, it's Christian's birthday next Friday."

"Really?!" Moka cried excitedly. "That's great! He'll be sixteen!"

"Yeah," Max said, surprisingly unenthusiastic. "You see, there is something you should know about Christian." Moka gave the the man on the screen a strange look. "Well, Christian doesn't exactly like to celebrate his birthday."

"What!?" Moka exclaimed, before quickly covering her mouth and looking towards the door. It would be very bad if she was discovered inside a boy's room on her own. After making sure everything was clear, Moka turned back to Max. "Why?"

"It's…a sensitive subject," Max started. "It was nine years ago. Christian was only six and was full of hope for the world. It was only a week before his seventh birthday when his parents were called away on an assignment. There had been an attack at a Plumber Base by a being no one had ever seen before. His parents were two of the best Plumbers we had so they went in alone to investigate."

Moka nodded, curious as to what she was going to be told next.

"We don't know exactly what happened," Max continued. "But apparently there was a massive battle. The Plumbers had been unprepared for the threat," Max said sadly as Moka gasped, coming to understand what had happened. "We lost many good people that day, including Christian's parents." Hearing this, Moka's eyes widened with shock. Christian had told her his parents had died but he had never said how.

"That's terrible…" Moka said gloomily. "I can't believe that happened…"

Max nodded half-heartedly before he began to recount the events that followed. "Christian's parents were supposed to return for his birthday, he had been staying with me for the week since I was a family friend. When they never came to get him, I used my resources to find out what had happened. You can imagine my shock when I learned what had transpired." Moka nodded in reply, tears forming in her eyes. "How do you tell a boy his parents died and that he'll never see them again on his birthday? It was one of the hardest moments of my life." Moka's tears began to dribble down from her eyes. "Of course, then I had to tell him how they died and what they did for a living. The poor boy was distraught. He locked himself in his room and didn't leave for days."

"Wasn't there anyone to look after him?" Moka asked.

"Christian unfortunately had no other family," Max told her. "Therefore, I looked after him until we found someone to care for him. When he finally left his room, he was vowing revenge against the one who killed his family. It may not seem like it at the minute, but he is still looking, despite the fact he doesn't know what it looks like." Moka was amazed that Christian was still holding all that hatred inside of him, especially after how he had acted after the event with the Class Rep. "At his parent's funeral, Christian stayed longer than anyone else, just sitting in front of their graves. He made them a number of promises," Max continued, a small smile appeared on his face. "The remarkable thing is that he has kept them. He is continually working to keep his word to his parents."

Moka was listening with a great amount of intrigue. She had never known Christian was so dedicated to his parents' memory. "That…is incredible," she replied, trying to find the right words.

Once again Max nodded before his face turned solemn again. "However, ever since that day, Christian hasn't celebrated his birthday. He sees it as the day that took his parents from him. That's why I want you to try and make him celebrate."

"What?"

"I want you to try and get Christian to celebrate his birthday," Max repeated. "I can tell you are someone he feels close to and since you are the only one who knows he's human, he trusts you."

"But-"

"Please Moka, I'm not asking you to do this as Christian's superior. I'm asking this as a stupid old man who is worried about his friend's son," Max explained. "Christian needs a little more joy in his life and I know he is happiest around you."

The girl's cheeks warmed a little. "I'll…I'll try," Moka said finally.

Max smiled happily. "Thank you, Moka," he said before looking at his watch. "I have to go now. It was very nice meeting you and remember to get Christian to admit you as the secondary user."

"I will Mr Tennyson. I was nice talking to you," Moka replied with a smile as she ended the communication and closed Christian's laptop before leaving the room, being careful not to be seen. She began making to leave the dorm when a loud and high pitched howl sounded through the area, alerting everyone in the dorm to a fight outside.

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As Moka continued to watch Christian and Zack, she couldn't help but feel frustrated with herself for forgetting Christian's troubles when she had seen him outside the girl's dorm as Blitzwolfer. She had been a bad friend to him and she swore she would make it up to him by finding a way for him to celebrate his birthday.

"Come on Christian!" Kurumu shouted encouragingly, bringing Moka out of her thoughts. "Clobber him!"

"My money's on Zack," Yukari chimed in, making the blue haired succubus glare at her. "What? I like Chris just as much as you, but look at the data!" Yukari told Kurumu loudly. "Zack was able to fight and beat a werewolf, an S-Class monster, in his human form. If they aren't going to use their monster forms, Zack has got this won," Yukari explained.

As Kurumu and Yukari began arguing, Moka looked on with absolutely no opinion. She could see that the two teens were evenly matched. Whenever one threw a punch, the other would block it. Neither of them had a clear advantage. At this point, it was either boy's game.

In the fight, Christian had only just dodged a punch that had been aimed for his head. "Nice try!" he laughed, preparing to kick at his opponent. Seeing it, Zack blocked the attack and twisted his foot, making Christian spin in mid-air.

"Yeah, but that was better," Zack chuckled as Christian landed on the ground. "Ready to call it quits?"

"I'm just getting warmed up," Christian responded with a smirk, jumping back up. "Wanna go again?"

"I'm good as long as you are," Zack replied with a smirk of his own. With those words, the two continued to fight.

Back at the side line, Moka's Rosario began to glow, alerting Moka to the arrival of her Inner self.

"It appears that these two are quite competent when it comes to hand to hand combat," Inner Moka remarked. "But they still have a long way to go before they will be able to match me."

Outer Moka sweat dropped at her Inner Self's remark. Apparently she didn't understand why Zack and Christian were sparring. She must have thought they were trying to train to fight her. "Yeah, I guess they do…" Outer Moka deadpanned with an awkward smile.

Sensing her outer self's unease, Inner Moka sighed. "It will be fine," she said with a sincere tone. "Hawke cares for you. Anything you do for his birthday will make him happy."

Moka nodded slightly as she watched Christian land a blow on Zack's stomach. "I know…it's just…I want to make him happy." Moka explained. "It's the least I can do for him."

Inner Moka was silent for a moment before replying. "If you want to do something special for Hawke, do something that he will never forget. Give him something from the heart." With that the Rosario ceased glowing. Moka was left thinking about what her Inner Self had said.

'She cares about him to,' she thought. However, before Moka could do anything else she heard Kurumu shout from beside her.

"No! You guys can't be done now!" she cried, making Moka look up to see Christian and Zack supporting each other, panting hard. "I have a bet with Yukari!"

The two boys walked over to their friends, still taking in vast amounts of oxygen. "Sorry…but we're…knackered…" Christian said between breaths.

"Yeah…I'm…Spent…" Zack agreed.

"C'mon, go a few more rounds! One of you has to win eventually!" Yukari added, wanting to win the bet she had apparently made with Kurumu.

"Sorry Yukari…Not gonna happen," Christian told the young witch before he let go of Zack and stretched. "Besides, we need to get going soon if we want to get to the club on time."

Reluctantly, Kurumu and Yukari both nodded. Moka just smiled.

"But first, Bro and I need to go and get changed," Zack said. "It won't be good if we show up to the club in sweaty clothes." The girls looked strangely at the boys before they realised what Zack was talking about. Both were drenched in sweat, their clothes sticking to their skin allowing the three to make out the muscles the two had. All three felt their cheeks heat up as they looked at the bodies of their friends.

"Yeah, probably a good idea," Moka said in a squeaky voice. However, the vampire girl realised this would be a good time to talk to Christian. "Um…Christian, Would you mind if I asked you something? It's important," she said, happy that Kurumu was still goo-goo eyed over her friends body.

A little surprised, Christian nodded. "Yeah, okay. What about?"

Not wanting to give away Christian's identity by mentioning the Omnitrix, Moka looked towards it on her friends left wrist. Automatically understanding, Christian agreed. "Okay, how about we walk back to the dorm together and talk as we go. Once I get changed, we can head to the club together," he suggested.

"No fair!" Kurumu suddenly shouted, catching the pair's attention. "I want to walk with him too!" she cried, latching on to Christian's arm.

"Oh no you don't!" Yukari shouted, making a golden wash pan appear over Kurumu's head and dropping it on her, effectively knocking her out. "You and I are going to wait in the club room and let them have this moment!" she told the unconscious succubus as she began dragging her away, but not before giving a thumbs up to Moka. She wanted her friend to have the best chance she could possibly have with the boy she liked, not that she wasn't a little jealous about it.

Moka, Christian and Zack watched the spectacle with a small sweat drop, chuckling nervously. After a few moments, Zack looked towards the other two. "I'm going back to my room, I'll see you guys at the club."

"Alright. We'll see you there," Christian replied, fist bumping the teen before he left, leaving him and Moka alone in the clearing. Once he was sure they were on their own and out of the ear range of anyone else, Christian began talking. "I'm assuming Magister Tennyson told you about the secondary user system?" he asked, hitting the nail on the head straight away.

"Yeah…" Moka said, nodding her head. "But if you don't want me as the secondary user, that's-"

"I believe you are the best candidate for it," Christian interrupted. "It would honour me if you would be the secondary user," he added, smiling warmly at her.

Moka remained silent for a moment before she jumped at Christian. "Thank you!" she shouted as she hugged him.

"It's okay, seriously," Christian replied. "Okay then, let's make it official," he said, causing Moka to let go of him and look at him happily.

"What do I need to do?" she asked curiously.

"Just stand there for now," Christian replied, raising the Omnitrix and pressing one of the side buttons and began speaking. "Omnitrix, command code 5, designation: secondary user. Code 0-0-1-1-0-1."

Suddenly the Omnitrix touch screen slid back and its core popped up. "COMMAND CODE ACCEPTED," a technological version of Christian's voice responded. This surprised Moka. She hadn't expected the Omnitrix to talk. "OMNITRIX WILL NOW ENTER SCAN MODE. PLEASE DESIGNATE SECONDARY USER." Suddenly the core emitted a beam of green light which Christian directed towards Moka.

The pinkette tensed as the beam went over her, but relaxed after Christian assured her she wouldn't be hurt. The ray went from the top of Moka's head down to her feet three times before fading and the core slid back into place, the touchscreen re-covering within moments. "OMNITRIX SCAN COMPLETED. NEW UN-CATEGORISED DNA DETECTED. SHOULD OMNITRIX STORE DNA SAMPLE?"

Christian was unprepared for that question. On the one hand, it would be incredible to be able to turn into a vampire like Moka. On the other hand, he shouldn't take Moka's DNA without her permission. And then there was what Inner Moka would do if she learned he took her DNA without her permission. The thought of being on the receiving end of one of her powerful kicks was enough to send a shiver down his spine.

"Christian…?" Moka called, bringing the boy out of his thoughts. "What did it just say?" she asked. "I didn't hear it."

"It's nothing to worry about Moka," Christian replied before returning to looking at the Omnitrix. "Negative, do not store DNA sample."

The Omnitrix screen flashed twice before it responded. "COMMAND CONFIRMED. NEW DNA SAMPLE HAS NOT BEEN STORED. PLEASE HAVE SECONDARY STATE THEIR DESIGANTION."

Christian looked at Moka, sending her a silent message to say her name. "Um…Moka Akashiya," she said nervously, unsure about what was going to happen.

The Omnitrix flashed once again, processing the new data. "SECONDARY USER, DESIGNATION: MOKA AKASHIYA, HAS BEEN SAVED TO OMNITRIX SERVER. VOICE PRINT SAVED. MOKA AKASHIYA'S COMMAND CODE IS DESIGNATED 1-1-0-1-0-1." The Omnitrix waited for a few moments before it continued. "TO VERIFY CODE, PLEASE GIVE VOICE COMMAND USING SECONDARY USER DESIGNATION."

Moka looked at Christian in confusion, wondering what to do. Picking up on it, Christian said, "Repeat after me. Omnitrix, secondary user system activate."

"Omnitrix, secondary user system activate," Moka repeated, causing the Omnitrix to begin beeping.

"Designation Moka Akashiya," Christian then said.

"Designation Moka Akashiya," the Omnitrix beeped again.

"Command code: 1-1-0-1-0-1."

"Command code: 1-1-0-1-0-1." Moka repeated once again. This time the Omnitrix blinked several times before it spoke in, Christian's electronic voice.

"MOKA AKASHIYA VOICE PRINT CONFIRMED. PLEASE INPUT COMMAND."

Moka once again looked at Christian for help, unsure what to say. "Tell it to transform me into one of my aliens." Christian told her.

Moka nodded. "Omnitrix, transform Christian into…um…XLR8?" The Omnitrix automatically emitted a bright flash. When the light had faded, XLR8 was standing tall.

"Well it looks like it worked," XLR8 said happily, looking down at his claws.

"Yeah, it did," Moka replied happily. "I'm a secondary user."

"Actually, you the secondary user," XLR8 corrected. "The Omnitrix can only have one and you're it."

"Really?" Moka asked, touched she had such an honour and that Christian trusted her.

"Yep," XLR8 nodded. "Now I'm gonna go and get changed. I'll be back in a minute." With that, XLR8 dashed off, leaving Moka alone.

Moka walked over and leaned against a tree as she waited for Christian to return. As she waited, many things were on her mind. Mostly how she could repay the teen for the trust he had in her.

She had barely thought of anything before XLR8 dashed up to her. "Are you done?"

"Uh, huh," the velociraptor-like alien confirmed. "C'mon we need to get to the club quickly." He suddenly dashed forward and picked Moka up in his arms before whizzing off towards the school building leaving a trail of blue and black behind him.

Moka was amazed by the speed they were going. Almost instantly, she loved the feeling of the wind blowing against her hair. However, no sooner had they begun, the two came to a halt in the middle of the Newspaper Club room. Putting Moka down, the vampire and transformed human looked up to see Kurumu and Yukari staring at them.

"What?" The two asked together.

"Moka…your hair," Yukari said, pointing to the pinkette's head.

XLR8, pressing on the Omnitrix symbol and reverting back to Christian, looked at Moka and automatically began trying to hold his laughter.

"What!?" Moka demanded, feeling slightly embarrassed when Kurumu began laughing as well. Yukari, who was giggling like crazy, handed Moka a small looking mirror she kept in her hat (why one was there, no one will ever know) and handed it to Moka.

Moka quickly looked at her reflection and screamed in horror at what she saw. The speed from XLR8's run had completely messed up her hair, turning her waist length pink hair in to a massive afro. Putting down the mirror, Moka wasted no time in smoothing out her hair, using her hands to unfurl the ball of pink until it was back to its normal state. Moka sighed in satisfaction when she looked in the mirror again but frowned when she saw Christian was still snickering.

"It wasn't that funny…" she murmured, pouting and putting her two index fingers together.

Yeah, you're right," Christian replied, stopping his snigger but keeping his slightly mocking smile. "Sorry about that. I guess XLR8 is faster than I thought."

"You shouldn't be apologising to her! You should be apologising to meeee!" Kurumu whined as she jumped up and latched herself around the surprised Christian. "How could you let me come here alone when you carried Moka?!" Christian tried to answer but at that point, Kurumu had just pulled him into her chest, preventing him from talking. "You'll have to find some way to make it up to me now," Kurumu stated, grabbing the teen's head and angling it so that he was looking her in the eyes. "I think I have one idea of how you can do that," she said, leaning in to try and kiss the reluctant Christian.

"Hey! Cut that out!" Yukari shouted, waving her wand and dropping another washtub on Kurumu's head, causing the succubus to automatically let go of Christian and fall to the ground, completely stunned. "Christian belongs to me!" the young witch shouted, running over and hugging him around the waist. "Or Moka!" she added quickly, forgetting she was also routing for her friend's love.

"What was that for?!" Kurumu shouted. "Why do you always need to come between me and my destined one?!" Suddenly, her fingernails began to grow, signifying she wanted a fight.

"Your destined one? Christian is ours!" Yukari countered, letting go of the teen and pulling out her wand. "If you want him you will have to take him!"

The girls would probably have actually followed through on their threats if Christian hadn't come between them. "Enough! Can we stop fighting for one minute and actually start club activities."

Kurumu and Yukari automatically calmed down, sitting back down in their chairs. It was at this point Zack entered the room, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Hey," Moka greeted, giving him a small wave. "You okay?"

"Huh…Uh, yeah. Hi," the boy replied, coming out of his thoughts.

"Is something wrong?" Christian asked, walking over.

"Yeah, don't worry about me, Bro," Zack told him, waving off his attitude. "C'mon, let's start the club." With that he walked past and went to sit down with the bickering Kurumu and Yukari. Moka and Christian shared a look before following Zack and sitting down at the table. When they had sat down, Zack looked around before asking hatefully, "So where's the dog?"

"It doesn't look like Gin's here yet," Christian replied, not nearly as angrily. He had forgiven Gin for his actions when he had apologised to him. It didn't mean he trusted him though.

"He's probably out taking pictures of girls," Kurumu remarked angrily.

"Yeah, let's forget about him! We can make our own progress!" Yukari cried in agreement.

Everyone nodded enthusiastically before they realised one thing. None of them knew the first thing about making a newspaper.

"Has anyone got any ideas?" Zack asked.

"I'm sure the club has some old newspapers somewhere," Moka said helpfully. "Perhaps we could look at a few of them and see if we can pick up any techniques for layout and writing."

"That's a good idea Moka," Yukari said, making the pinkette smile.

"Well what are we waiting for?!" Kurumu cried energetically. "Let's find those papers!"

"YEAH!" the group cheered as they began scouring the club room for old papers. They searched fruitlessly for several minutes with nary a paper to be found. Finally, after several more minutes, Kurumu let out a cry of success.

"Yahoohoo! Look what I found!" She brought over a large, dusty box of old newspapers which she placed on the table.

"Great work, Kurumu," Christian said.

"Oh, it was nothing," Kurumu replied modestly.

"Well c'mon, let's take a look already!" Zack exclaimed, desperate to start making papers of his own. Everyone agreed with the teen as they opened up the box and took out a collection of the newspapers. However, the first thing everything everyone did upon looking at the cover was gasp. For the front page picture showed none other than a blue and black velociraptor like creature with a white strip running down its chest and it had wheels on his feet. The creature had green eyes and appeared to be waving at the camera with its three clawed hand. However the most distinguishable feature the creature had was the white and black hour glass symbol on its chest.

"No way," Kurumu started, utterly bewildered.

"That's…" Yukari continued, completely surprised.

"XLR8," Zack finished, looking at the nervous Christian.

The teen in question said nothing as he looked at the paper. He noticed the article was from five years ago, meaning it was Ben in the picture before he took off his first Omnitrix for the first time. It wasn't him but this would be difficult to explain. Moka, who was standing next to Christian, also looked worried. What would happen if their friends found out about Christian's true identity?

"Christian…Is that you?" Yukari asked, a little hesitantly, pointing to the picture on the cover.

Thinking fast, Christian answered, "No, I wasn't able to turn into XLR8 five years ago," he only half lied. Five years ago he hadn't been able to transform at all. "I only got XLR8 's most likely another shapeshifter. We tend to have a hero complex." Honestly, he didn't think they would believe that explanation. Fortunately though, luck was on Christian's side.

"Okay, after seeing what you're like, that makes sense." Yukari said, nodding her head in understanding.

"That's cool, it's like your species are heroes." Kurumu added.

Zack said nothing but just smiled none the less.

"Hey, there are more papers in here," Yukari pointed out, separating the papers to show each one was different and had a different hero on. Every single paper was from five years ago. The only other heroes the girls recognised were Blitzwolfer and Ripjaws. There were loads of other heroes. One was made completely out of rock and flame, another was red, had four arms and was extremely muscular. There was even one that appeared to be a giant plant on five legs.

"These are incredible," Moka remarked in awe. Christian had shown her most of his aliens and she had recognised a few of them from the pictures but there was still a few she didn't recognise.

The papers were from America but had been translated in to Japanese for reader convenience, meaning the girls and Zack were able to read them. They were amazed by the feats the heroes had accomplished. Apparently no one knew what they were but the only similarity between all of the strange heroes was the hour glass symbol that was always present somewhere on their body.

"The monsters your species can turn into are so impressive, Chris," Yukari remarked, reading an article about a small but brainy, frog like creature stopping a robbery at a carnival.

"I like this guy," Zack said, showing a picture of a ghost like alien that Christian knew was Ghostfreak, or Zs'skayr as he liked to be called. He was an alien Ben had been able to use before it gained sentience and tried to kill him.

"Yeah, not exactly one of my favourites," Christian responded, never really liking the ghostly transformation.

"Are you able to turn in to him?" Zack asked excitedly with stars in his eyes, wanting to see the alien in the flesh.

"Sorry, I can't turn into that one," Christian told him, making the other boy's smile drop into a disappointed frown.

"That sucks!" Zack cried childishly. He had really wanted to see Ghostfreak.

"What does?" a voice asked from the doorway. The five turned to see Gin standing there with a smirk on his face.

"Just you," Zack said angrily. He really didn't like the werewolf teen.

"Whoa, easy there." Gin said, feigning a hurt look. "There's no need to be hurtful."

Zack scowled as he turned around. "Whatever…" he growled, resisting the urge to punch Gin.

"For a werewolf, you sure are late," Christian remarked, raising a suspicious eyebrow at the headband wearing boy.

"I know and I'm sorry," Gin replied, smiling smugly. "But I just got us a great new scoop."

"A great…" Christian and Zack started.

"New scoop?" the three girls finished, looking at Gin doubtfully.

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A few minutes later, the members of the Newspaper Club were gathered around a bunch of tables that they had put together in order to talk as a group. Gin stood at the head of them, a file in his hands.

"As you can see from this folder," Gin said, opening the item and placing it in the middle of the joined tables, "a number of the female students have disappeared over the course of the last month and a half," Gin continued to explain as he walked over to the nearby window and looked out of it with a hand on chin. "It is suspected that they have been kidnapped and are still on campus as no one has been reported to have left the academy."

"Gin really takes this kind of stuff seriously, doesn't he?" Moka whispered to her friends.

"Yeah, it makes a difference to what he's normally like," Kurumu replied, ever so slightly impressed, although Gin was about to prove her wrong.

"Each one of those girls was attractive in their own right," Gin said as a depraved grin spread across his face. "If I save them, then they will see how heroic I am and fall in love with me," he said, revealing his true intentions and causing the other members of the club to sigh in exasperation.

"Yeah, like that's ever going to happen," Zack mocked sarcastically, getting up from his seat and grabbing hold of Gin's ear and tugging on it tightly. "I think you need to be reminded of your little lesson from the other day," he said menacingly as he began to drag the werewolf of to the other side of the room.

"Please don't..." Gin whimpered as Zack eyes seemed to flash red with menacing aura.

After a quick beat down, (a punch to the stomach and a kick in the crotch), Zack sat back down, looking very satisfied.

Christian, who had been examining the contents of the folder, which were the profiles of the missing students, asked, "So basically what you want us to do is investigate these girls' disappearances?"

"Yeah…" Gin replied weakly from the floor, holding his private area. He was still recovering from his lesson. "This is a huge scoop after all. Despite what I might say, we really do need to help find those girls."

Christian sighed as he thought things through. It didn't take him long to come up with a decision about what to do. "Ok, I'll find out what happened," he declared. However, the pride in his voice seemed to vanish seconds later when he felt two soft objects press against his back.

"Don't you mean 'we', honey bunny?" Kurumu purred, stroking the side of Christian's face with her right hand. "I know we'd make and excellent team."

Before the uncomfortable teen could even reply a golden wash tub fell from above and landed squarely on Kurumu's head, forcing the succubus to release Christian. "Yeah right you obnoxious cow!" Yukari cried as she latched on to Christian who sighed in exasperation. "Christian and I would make a much better team!" she declared.

Moka on the other hand frowned and said, "I think it would be best if we all worked together on this." She then proceeded to try and pry Yukari off their friend. Of course it was at that moment Kurumu recovered and returned to glomping Christian in order to get him to notice her.

To the side, Zack watched the little display with a smile on his face, amused by his friend's girl problems. Gin was just glaring at Christian with intense jealousy. 'Why does this always happen to him!' the werewolf boy screamed in his head.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After the girls had finally let Christian go, the six split in to three teams of two in order to look for clues. The Newspaper Club members agreed it would be faster to split up but didn't want any of the girls to be on their own in case they were kidnapped by the same person who had taken the other girls. The teams were, finally, decided as; Christian and Moka, Zack and Yukari and Kurumu and Gin. Of course, Yukari and Kurumu were both disappointed they didn't get to go with Christian but unfortunately Moka had beaten them at the sacred rock-paper-scissors so there wasn't a lot they could do.

Gin had been quite happy with the pairings, especially since he was with a beautiful girl. However his attitude was quickly changed when Christian and Zack walked over to him and threatened to hurt him if he did anything to upset Kurumu, quickly making the werewolf's good mood dissipate as he promised to be on his best behaviour.

After that; Zack, Yukari, Kurumu and Gin left the club room in order to go and ask questions about the missing girls. Moka had made her way to leave when she turned to see that Christian was still looking at the folder Gin had brought. Curiously, Moka wandered over to her friend's side to see him looking intently at the information on the pages.

"It doesn't make sense," Christian muttered to himself, only just loud enough for Moka to hear.

"What?" she asked curiously.

"According to this, these girls have no connections between them," he explained, not taking his eyes off the folder. "They aren't in the same class as one another, they're not in the same year. They're not even in the same clubs. They even have different styles of hair and blood types. There isn't one connection between them," he listed off, his eyes now closed in thought.

"Maybe there isn't a connection between them," Moka suggested. "Maybe the kidnapper took them just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"I doubt that," Christian told her pointing to a section of dates. "Look at the dates they went missing."

Moka narrowed her eyes to in order to look at what Christian had pointed out. "They're all within a few days of one another," she said.

"Yeah, it's way too organised," Christian told her. "There is no way this could be random."

"But what does that mean?"

"I don't know," Christian replied, reaching for the Omnitrix. "But I know someone who will be able to put the pieces together," he said with a smirk as he activated the Omnitrix, selected a hero and slammed down on the core. Moka covered her eyes as Christian was bathed in emerald light. Once it had faded, the pinkette uncovered her eyes to see that her friend had disappeared.

"Chris?" she called out, thinking he may have turned into Big Chill. "Where are you?"

"Down here!" a high but slightly quiet voice responded from below her.

Moka looked down but still couldn't see anything. "Where!?" she called again, cocking her brow in confusion.

"Here!" the voice replied. Suddenly, much to Moka's surprise, a small creature jumped up on to the table and waved at her. The creature was a grey skinned, frog-like, bipedal alien that was only, what Moka suspected, four inches tall with large green eyes, which had rectangular pupils. The creature wore a green jumpsuit with a black belt. It also had black, finger-less gloves with a green rectangle on the back. Moka was also able to see the Omnitrix symbol on the creatures back.

"Christian?" Moka questioned, underwhelmed by the alien in front of her.

"Actually, in this form, I go by the name Grey Matter," the frog-like alien explained. "I'm a Galvan, a member of the smartest beings in the universe."

"Wow!" Moka remarked. "So… why did you turn in to him?"

Before he answered, Grey Matter wandered across the table over to the open folder and looked at it. "Grey Matter tends to read between the lines and is able to make connections that normal people can't," the small alien explained. "Which means that I should be able to make this easier to solve," he said as he continued to read the information present on the pieces of paper in front of him. However, a frown soon appeared on the Galvan's face. "Although, I'm not getting much from this," Grey Matter admitted sadly. "As I said before, there are little to none similarities between these girls. As much as I hate to admit it, especially considering my intellect is vastly superior to his right now, Gin was right. The only connection I can see is that these girls were all attractive."

Moka looked down in disappointment, sad that they had been unable to discover anything. "Are you sure that's everything?" she asked, picking up the folder herself to take a look. "Are you sure there isn't something you missed?"

Grey Matter chuckled slightly as he crossed his small arms and closed his eyes. "Now Moka, I know that you are trying to help, but if Grey Matter couldn't find a connection then-"

"Hey! All the girls were put in detention for skipping class!" Moka cried.

Grey Matter's jaw dropped as he heard Moka say those words. "What!?" he shouted, jumping up and snatching the file back from Moka and looked at what the vampire had looked at. "This wasn't in here before!"

"The pages were stuck together," Moka told the alien, said to be the smartest species in the universe, with a smug grin. "You really didn't notice?"

"I have no comment," Grey Matter replied, turning away with the folder so Moka couldn't see his embarrassed expression. After examining the newly discovered page, the small alien replied, "You're right, all the girls missed several of their lessons prior to their disappearances."

"The question is though, what were they doing when they weren't in lessons?" Moka asked.

The vampire and small alien shared a look before they decided to go and take a look around themselves. Hopefully they would be able to find some clue as to the girl's locations.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Moka and Christian spent the rest of the day going around the campus trying to find anything that could help them with their investigation. They tried going to the main school office to see if they could learn anything else about the girl's absences. Unfortunately it was closed for the weekend and wouldn't be open again until the next day.

The pair also tried to interview students who were walking around and enjoying their weekend. There were a few people willing to talk to them, especially now that some of the students had a little sympathy for Christian, however the vast majority of students refused to talk to him because they still hated his guts.

Anyway, from the information they did acquire, they learned the girls cut class often so that they could go and hang out in another lesson. They had no idea which one though. The information was useful as it gave the pair an idea of what the girls had been doing before they disappeared. Unfortunately, that still left the issue of where they had gone.

When they returned to the club, they found that their friends had already returned from their searches. It was then that the six teens decided to sit down and share the information they had gathered. Apparently, Zack and Yukari had gone to where one of the girl's had been last seen. Unfortunately they had been unable to find anything of any significance that could tell them where she had gone. Kurumu and Gin had planned to search the girls' dorm rooms for clues but they had been unable to do as they weren't allowed to enter the rooms without either a key or the permission of a teacher so they had to wait until Monday to follow that possible lead.

After they had finished talking, Christian and Moka told the rest of the group about what they had learned. Needless to say the others were surprised. They also laughed when they found Christian hadn't considered the pages of the folder were stuck together. Once everyone had shared, the six ended the meeting and decided to come back to it the next day.

Zack had quickly left the club, claiming he had something to do. Kurumu and Yukari also left quickly, the former kidnapping the latter in order to get some help with her homework. Gin…well he had disappeared as soon as the club members had looked away from him, using his speed to leave faster than the eye could see. This left Moka and Christian alone in the club room. After a quick exchange of words, the two headed back to the dorms together.

As the two left the school, Moka couldn't help but keep glancing towards the Omnitrix teen. He had been through so much ever since he was a child. It was so hard to lose the people you cared about, especially if they were your parents. Moka could relate. Her mother had gone missing several years ago without a trace. She couldn't remember what had happened to her. The only clue she was the Rosario around her neck. But Moka knew her situation was different; her mother was only missing. She still had hope she would see her again. Christian knew his parents were gone. He would never see them again. The thought made Moka with sad but only motivated her to make his birthday perfect.

Although to do that, they needed to catch the kidnapper. Moka was now focused on finding the culprit, but first she needed to find out something from Christian: what he wanted for his birthday. It would be difficult, but she was determined to succeed.

And now was a better time than never. She chose her words carefully, she said, "It's amazing how quickly the year has gone, isn't it?"

Christian, surprised by the sudden comment, cocked his eyebrow. "Yeah, I guess," he replied. "It's almost summer break isn't it?" Phase one complete.

"That's right, I'm looking forward to it," Moka replied, going slightly off topic. Moka faked a gasp. "Oh yeah, Christian I forgot to ask you!"

"What?" the teen asked, once again looking towards Moka who was smiling at him a little too sweetly.

"I was wondering about your interests."

Once again, Christian's eyebrow rose with curiosity. "I've already told you haven't I? Why would you ask again?"

"I just wanted to know more about you," Moka justified. "I realised that we've known each other for a few months but I barely know anything about you," she continued to pester. "I want to know what makes you, Christian Hawke."

The Omnitrix teen questionably looked at Moka for a moment before he smiled. "Fine, but in return I want to know a little more about you in return."

"I think that's fair," Moka replied, happy that Christian was complying with her. Phase two complete. "I suppose we should take it in turns then." She suggested.

"Ladies first."

"Why should I go first?" Moka asked, laughing.

"It was your idea."

"Fine," Moka sighed. "What do you want to know?"

"Let's see…" Christian began, mockingly placing his hand under his chin whilst tapping it with his thumb. "I would like to know…Where you got your Rosario from?" he finally decided.

Moka's eyes widened, she hadn't expected him to ask her that. "It was a gift…From my mother," Moka explained, a sly trickle of sadness present in her voice. Christian picked up on it and decided not to dive too deep in to the subject, sensing it was a sensitive issue. "That's cool," he replied, giving his friend a reassuring smile. "What do you want to ask me?"

Moka, grateful for Christian changing the subject, returned her friends smile with a small one of her own. "Okay, what is your main interest at the moment?" Moka smiled at her cunning. Christian would tell her what he liked and then she would be able to find him a suitable present. It was a smart plan…until the teen ruined it.

"I guess I like riding motorbikes," Christian told her, causing the pinkette to frown, she couldn't think of anything she could get him related to motorbikes. "I actually have one already, I'm just not allowed to ride it until I turn sixteen," Christian continued to explain looking off in to the distance, meaning he had missed Moka's annoyed expression. "I've wanted to ride that thing for a long time. A friend of mine built it as a birthday present last year"

Moka frown was quickly changed into a look of interest. She had no idea Christian owned a motorcycle. Perhaps when he could finally drive, he could take her for a ride? Moka quickly realised what she had just thought and flushed furiously. 'Why was I thinking about that just now?!' she mentally screamed at herself.

"My turn," Christian stated, breaking Moka's chain of thought. "What was your favourite thing to do as a kid?"

Moka giggled at the childish question before she answered. "Well before I had my powers sealed, I would always fight with my younger sister, Kokoa."

"You have a sister?"

"Yeah, three of them actually." Moka told him with a smile. "I'm the third oldest of the four."

"It's hard to imagine three other people as strong as you, Moka." Christian replied, trying to imagine what Moka's sisters looked like. "Why did you fight with your sister?"

Moka laughed nervously as she tried to find the correct words to describe why she fought her sister. "I guess…it was something of a pride thing. My sister would challenge me, I would accept and then beat her."

"You won every time?"

"Yeah, I did. I honestly feel bad for Kokoa. She always wanted to beat me," Moka replied, sounding sympathetic as she thought about her sister. She looked forward and realised they were already at the dorms. She knew she had enough time to ask one more question, but she had to ask it quickly. "Okay, last question. If you could have someone give you anything in the world, what would it be?" she asked, completely forgetting subtlety.

Christian looked at his vampire friend strangely for a few moments, slightly suspicious. Luckily for Moka, he decided to look past it. "I honestly don't know," he replied, only half lying. He would have liked the chance to ask Moka on a date. Unfortunately, Christian didn't believe Moka return the feelings he had towards her so he decided not to. "I'm happy with what I have at the moment."

"Come on!" Moka pushed, desperate to find out what her friend wanted. "Surely there's something?"

"Not really," Christian replied, making Moka sweat drop in annoyance. "I would be happy with anything someone gave me, as long as it was thought out and from the heart."

Moka sighed, exasperated that Christian was making things hard for her. "I guess that's fair," she replied, annoyed she hadn't gotten a clear answer. The pair continued to walk until they came to the half way point between the dorms. Giving each quick farewell, the two teens separated and headed towards their respective dorms.

As soon as she had entered her room, Moka flopped on to her bed; her thoughts weighing heavily on her mind. Christian hadn't exactly helped on the present front and now she was back to step one. As if she didn't have enough to deal with, her Rosario began to glow.

"Well that was pointless wasn't it?" Inner Moka stated. "Didn't I tell you in the first place just to give him something from the heart?"

Moka simply nodded in response. "Yes, you did," she admitted. Slowly, the pinkette rose from her bed and looked down towards the glowing Rosario. "How did you even know what Christian said?" she asked curiously.

"I'm with you at all times in the day, stupid," Inner Moka explained, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "Just because I'm not talking to you doesn't mean I'm not active."

"Right…" Moka sighed, confused by her inner self's mental link with her.

"So then…Now what do you plan to give the human for his birthday?" Inner Moka asked, adding to Outer Moka's troubles.

"I don't know!" Outer Moka moaned, once again falling back on to her bed in frustration. "He doesn't seem to want anything."

Inner Moka remained silent for a moment before she replied. "Did you ever consider that perhaps you're over thinking this?"

"What do you mean?" Outer Moka asked, still lying down on the bed.

"Hawke told you himself," Inner Moka stated. "He doesn't care what someone gives him. It just has to be from their heart." As Outer Moka listened to her Inner self, she began to understand what her vampire side was saying. Christian didn't care about material possessions, he would be happy just to know his friends had thought of him. She felt like a weight had been removed from her shoulders knowing her friend would be happy no matter what she gave him. Despite that, she still wanted it to be special.

"I can't believe you are still thinking about this! If you're seriously still having trouble with this then just make him something!"

Outer Moka's eyes widened at her Inner self's small rant. Slowly, a wide smile spread across her face. "That's a brilliant idea, Inner Me!" she exclaimed happily, getting up and walking over to her desk. The girl racked her mind as she began to come up with ideas. "Now what to do?" Outer Moka said to herself, tapping her fingers on the desks wooden top. "Any ideas?" she asked the Rosario hopefully.

"I've had enough of this foolishness." Inner Moka replied in exasperation. "You're the one giving him the gift, you deal with this. It's not my problem." The Rosario's glow died meaning Inner Moka's consciousness had gone back to being dormant.

"Thanks for the help," Moka said absently as she continued to ponder what to make. Moka continued to brainstorm for a few more minutes before giving up. Nothing she could think of seemed personal enough.

Moka sunk on to her bed in slight despair. "What am I gonna do?" she wondered, looking to the side. It was then that she saw the spine of one of her text books and got a brilliant idea. Quickly grabbing the book, Moka dashed from the room; hoping to catch a specific person before they went home.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That night, Zack sat alone at the top of the dorm rooms, pondering his future actions. "What should I do?" he asked himself.

"What are you doing up here for?" a voice asked from behind him. Zack didn't even have to turn to realise it was Christian standing behind him.

"Just thinking about some stuff," Zack replied, acting the fool. "Why did you come up here?"

"I come up here sometimes to think." Christian responded, looking up at the night sky. "Looking at the stars helps to clear my mind," he explained. "Although, it is rather hard to see them in the monster world."

Zack looked up at the sky and sighed contently. "Yeah, I guess so."

Looking at his friend, Christian could tell there was something wrong. Despite only knowing him for a few weeks, Zack had never been…well, depressed. "What's wrong, Zack?" he finally asked. "You've been out of it all day."

Zack remained silent for a few moments before he decided to get up from where he was seated. Tilting his head upwards before he spoke. "As I told you earlier Bro, you don't need to worry about me. I just happen to have a lot on my mind."

Christian looked doubtfully at his friend, not believing his words. However, sensing that the situation didn't need his input, he decided to stop prying. "If that's what you want," he yielded, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Just remember I'm here to talk to if you need me."

Zack smirked at that. "Cheers Bro but honestly, I'm fine."

After a few more moments of silence, Christian walked over to join his friend so that they were side by side. The two remained silent for a few more moments before Christian decided to break it. "What do you think about this kidnapper situation?" he asked.

"I don't like it," Zack replied, frowning. "These girls have been missing for ages and there has been no sign of them since. If the girls are still on the campus, someone should have found them by now."

"It doesn't make any sense," Christian agreed. "How can these girls just disappear without a trace? Someone must have seen them."

"I agree, it all seems too suspicious."

"Until we catch whoever been taking these girls, we need to make sure Moka, Kurumu and Yukari remain with one of us at all times," Christian said, a very serious look in his eyes. "I won't allow anyone to hurt our friends, I will gladly die before I allow that to happen."

A sly grin spread across Zack's face as he thought of a way to tease Christian. "I completely agree. Speaking of the girls, which one of them do you like the most?"

Christian's eyes went wide at Zack's words. He began to cough on a non-existent object. "Wh-what do you mean?! I like all the girls as friends! Why would you think otherwise?" he squeaked.

"Really…?" Zack asked childishly. "Or has a certain vampire girl caught your eye?"

"Mo-Moka has nothing to do with this," Christian stammered. "Yes, she's beautiful and the kindest person I've ever met…" he said, stopping his rambling when he realised he was pretty much proving Zack right. The teen in question looked at his friend with a playful smirk, knowing he had won. After a few more moments of the pair saying nothing, Christian finally submitted, placing a hand on his forehead for a mere moment before removing it and started ranting. "Fine. I like her. You happy now?"

"Admitting it is the first step."

"Shut up," Christian sighed before turning to leave. "I'm going to go and get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Try not to get lost thinking about Moka!" Zack called after him.

"I swear I will not hesitate go Rath on you if you don't shut up!" Christian shouted angrily.

"Yeah right," Zack responded, holding back his laughter. After Christian has left, Zack once again became serious and looked back towards the sky, his thoughts preoccupied with a certain purple haired woman who had appeared before him on this very roof a few days before and the proposition she had made him. "What should I do?" he asked himself.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Monday

The next day, Christian pretty much had the same morning he normally did. He met Moka at the dorm entrance and she drank some of his blood without his permission. Kurumu then showed up and near suffocated him with Yukari following by dropping a wash tub on the succubus's head which freed Christian and allowed him to breathe. The succubus teen retaliated by getting into a pointless fight with her, Moka attempted to break it up and just ended up getting involved instead. Finally, Zack showed up and greeted Christian. However, instead of going on ahead like they normally did, the two boys waited for their friends to finish fighting so they could walk to school together.

The school day had passed by quite quickly with no excitement whatsoever. It was the last period and Christian, Moka and Kurumu were in their regularly scheduled art class with one of the most popular teachers at Yokai Academy, Hitomi Ishigami. She may have been popular with the boys due to her brilliant good looks, but she was even more popular with the female populace of the school. Christian had heard that there was even a fan club completely dedicated to her consisting of only girls.

Ms. Ishigami was slim and wore a red tube top which snuggled comfortably against her curvy figure. She sported a pair of tight black jeans which accented her hips. She wore a long, white, trench coat which was splattered with paint stains from her time in the art room. Her long blonde hair was braided and done up in a red bandana that Ms. Ishigami was famous for.

Once everyone was seated in front of their art stands, Ms. Ishigami made an announcement. "Okay class, today we are going to start on a new project. It will be called 'What is most important to me'. You shall be painting what you consider to be closest to your heart. If you do that, anything you create shall be art."

Almost automatically, the students got to work. Grabbing their canvases and utensils, they began sketching the outlines of their paintings. Christian was already sketching the outlines of six people on his canvas. He was planning to draw his friends from the Newspaper Club as at this point in time they meant everything to him. If it was of a good enough quality, they could hang it up in the club room.

"And what exactly are you drawing, Kurumu?" Ms. Ishigami's voice came from Christian's side causing the Plumber teen to look and see his teacher standing over the bluenette, a frown on her face.

"It's me and Christian, Miss." Kurumu replied, happily looking at her sketch which currently consisted of two badly drawn stick figures with smiley faces. Christian leaned over to notice that one of the stick figures had two big circles just at the top of its body. It didn't take a genius to figure out who that person was.

Sighing, Christian returned to his own drawing, carefully sketching his friends. He had Zack standing on the right, his usual smile plastering his face as he gave a peace sign. Gin was on the other side, also smiling out at the viewer. Christian had drawn him with a camera in his hands as photography was the werewolf's favourite hobby, even if it did get him in to trouble. He had drawn himself at the centre of the picture, smiling happily with his hands in his pockets. Kurumu was drawn to his left, winking with a hand on her hip. Yukari was in between Christian and Kurumu, waving out at the person on the other side of the campus. She held her wand in her other hand and looked ready to cast a spell. Christian drew Moka last; the vampire girl was directly to the right of the sketched Christian. She was drawn with her hands behind her back, a cheerful and kind look on her face. For some reason, it made Christian feel happy for some reason to see all his friends cheerful together. However, he couldn't help but feel there was someone missing from the picture. Inner Moka was technically the last member of the club and she was their friend too, even if she didn't admit it. Christian was about to sketch her in just above Outer Moka before he heard a voice from behind him.

"That's a nice scene." Christian was startled to find Ms. Ishigami standing over him, admiring his work. "That's the Newspaper Club, correct?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," the Plumber replied. "My friends mean everything to me. I figured they would appreciate this."

"I'm sure they will," Ms. Ishigami responded, smiling warmly. The teacher then walked away from Christian and left him to his work.

Once Christian had finished his sketch, he moved to paint it. Using the smallest strokes, Christian began painting the background of the clubroom first. Filling in the white spaces with the colours he thought appropriate. The Plumber had finished a quarter of the background when he looked up to notice something strange. Standing amidst the other students was a female with a strange hairstyle that Christian didn't recognise. That was understandable considering Christian didn't really know a lot of the people in his class; especially since about half of them still hated his guts. However, this girl was strange as she was wearing her gym uniform. The girl was talking with Ms. Ishigami, she had a very excited look on her face. Christian watched as the unfamiliar girl and teacher had finished their conversation before the former ran out of the classroom.

'Probably just came to deliver a message,' Christian told himself, although his gut said otherwise. Looking to his right, he noticed Moka was now talking to Ms. Ishigami about her work. 'I wonder what she's painting,' Christian thought absently as he continued to work.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Once the bell for the end of the lesson had finally sounded; Christian, Moka and Kurumu headed to the clubroom only to discover that it had been cancelled for the day due to unforeseen events. Slightly disheartened, the three walked back to the dorms. They met up with Zack and Yukari along the way and after telling them about the club meeting cancelation.

As the five walked back to the dorms together, they chatted about the day and also shared any thoughts they had on the disappearances. Needless to say they still hadn't thought of anything. Once back at the dorms; Moka, Kurumu and Yukari headed back to their rooms whilst Zack and Christian went back to theirs.

The boys split up on the stairs as they lived on different floors. When Christian turned the key to his door he automatically noticed that he needed to take out the rubbish. His bin was filled to the brim with papers that consisted of failed attempts at homework as well as several drawings of some of his aliens. Sighing, Christian quickly changed his school clothes into his usual blue jeans and black jacket and headed out with the bin in order to empty it into the incinerator.

As Christian headed back out of the dorms, he couldn't help but think about his situation at the school. Just a two months ago he'd come to this school on a peaceful mission to unite humans and monsters and so far he seemed to have been in more fights than diplomatic situations. What he first needed to do was establish a good relationship with the students at the school in order to try and show them that humans weren't as bad as they were made out to be. Of course that was a lot harder now considering three quarters of the student body hated him. He was back in the good light with some of the students due to him catching Gin but that was still only a few people.

Christian was so caught up in his thoughts that he failed to notice someone in front of him. He walked straight into the back of the person, causing him to bump them with the bin. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," Christian said, coming to his senses. "Are you- Moka!?" As Christian had said, standing in front of him was the pinkette, holding a bin herself. "What are you doing out here on your own?! I thought we told you guys to be careful. Especially since that kidnapper is still out there."

Moka, looking a little embarrassed, gave him a small smile. "I know, I'm sorry." She apologised. It's just that I didn't think it would be that bad if I was only taking out the trash." Inside the Rosario, Inner Moka was sighing in exasperation at her Outer Self's naivety. Luckily, Christian had come along.

"Well I guess it's a good thing I came along then. We can go together," Christian said with a small smile. Moka responded with one of her own as the two continued to walk towards the incinerator. However, Christian could sense a certain unease coming from his friend. "Moka, is there something wrong?"

"What?! No of course not!" Moka answered a little too hastily, giving her away instantly. After a rather sceptical look from Christian, Moka finally gave in. "You see…I'm going to be out of the club for the next few days." She began to explain.

"Why?" Christian asked curiously.

"I-I'm going to be modelling for Ms. Ishigami," Moka admitted, going slightly red as she told her friend a half truth. "S-she asked me to do it."

"That's…good," Christian replied slowly. "When do you finish?"

"On Sunday…" Moka said with a sad tone. "But I have Friday off." She slightly perked up. "Maybe we could hang out then?"

Christian's expression turned into one of sadness as he realised what day that was. "I'm sorry Moka but I won't be able to hang out on Friday," he said regretfully.

"What!? Why?!" Moka cried. It was his birthday and she had planned something for it.

"It's just…" Christian began uneasily. "There's something I need to do on that day…Alone."

Moka looked at Christian with wide, sad eyes. She knew that his birthday was sad for him but did he really want to be on his own all day? "What about school?" she asked, trying to find sometime during Friday she could be with him.

"…Maybe…" Christian replied. "But I warn you, I may be a bit of a buzzkill."

Moka continued to gaze at her friend before turning her head back towards the way they were walking. An awkward silence fell between the two as they continued walking. After a few more minutes they found themselves at the incinerator, however they weren't the only ones there. Standing in front of the machine was a figure dressed in a black, hooded cloak that covered their features.

Curiously, Moka and Christian watched as the figure opened the incinerator and took out something from the inside of their cloak. Finding it all too suspicious, Christian stepped out into the open. "Hey! What are you doing?!"

The sudden shout startled the figure, causing them to drop what they had been holding and turn to face Christian and Moka. The hood of the cloak obscured the face of the figure in darkness meaning the pair couldn't see the figure's face, however they could clearly see what they had dropped. A collection of seven girl school uniforms.

Putting the two together, Christian's expression turned into one of anger as he realised that he was in the presence of the kidnapper. "It's you!" he shouted angrily. "You're the one who's been kidnapping those girls!"

The kidnapper didn't respond. They seemed to be weighing their options. Suddenly, in one swift motion, the kidnapper swooped down and picked up the uniforms they had dropped and threw them into the incinerator. The kidnapper then turned and began running off into the woods.

Running after the retreating kidnapper, Christian called back, "Moka, go and get a teacher! I'm going after this guy!" He failed to hear his friend's reply as he was already too far away.

The figure still in his sights, Christian reached down and activated the Omnitrix. Not even looking at the alien he had selected, he slammed down on the core and was engulfed in a bright light. When the light had faded, he was replaced with a hulking, broad-shouldered alien that was covered in natural, yellow armoured plates which shielded its back, shoulders and arms. Its skin was mostly white with black bits on its upper half. The alien possessed four claws on both of its hands. The Omnitrix symbol was on its chest.

"Cannonbolt?" the alien remarked, slightly surprised as he came to a stop. Cannonbolt looked up to see the figure still getting away, completely oblivious to the newly transformed alien behind them. Smirking, the alien stated, "That'll work."

The clumsy bipedal alien suddenly curled itself into a ball, his yellow armour protecting him, and began rolling forward with a burst of speed, quickly catching up with the cloaked figure.

The kidnapper took a quick glance behind only to see the giant cannonball rolling towards them. Stopping and turning to face the alien, they waited until the last possible moment until Cannonbolt was almost on top of them. They then jumped over the alien wrecking ball, twisting in the air before landing on the other side safely while causing the alien to slam into a tree. However, the kidnapper didn't expect Cannonbolt to bounce off the tree and come straight back at them at a greater speed.

Cannonbolt smashed straight into the kidnapper, sending them flying into a nearby tree and promptly knocked them out. The alien rolled over to the cloaked figure and unfurled into his bipedal form. Pressing the Omnitrix symbol on his chest, he was quickly replaced with Kickin Hawk.

Not bothering to call out his name, the hawk-like alien knelt down and slowly used his talons to pull back the hood that covered the kidnapper's face; still fully prepared to fight if the kidnapper was faking their condition. When the cloak was finally lowered, Kickin Hawk was surprised to find himself looking at a completely unfamiliar girl who looked around his age. She had long, vibrant red hair that was done up into a ponytail at the back. She was quite pretty and had a collection of freckles on her cheeks. Kickin Hawk eyed the girl curiously and noticed something strange on the girl's neck; a small puncture wound where it looked like she had been injected with something.

As Kickin Hawk wondered what could have caused it, the red head began to come to. Groaning as she regained consciousness, she warily opened her eyes, revealing them to be a chocolate brown. "Uhh… What hit me?" she murmured, moving one of her hands to support her head.

"That would have be me," Kickin Hawk said, gaining the girls attention.

"AHHH!" she screamed.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Kickin Hawk started, waving his talons trying to calm the girl down unsuccessfully. "Stop yelling for a second! I'm friendly!"

"Wa-wait, you're the Gaijin aren't you?" the girl asked, looking slightly worried.

Kickin Hawk nodded, tapping the symbol on his chest and reverting back to Christian. "Yes, although I do have a name other than Gaijin."

"Please, don't hurt me!" the girl cried fearfully; trying to scurry away from Christian but found herself unable to because she was up against the tree.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," Christian responded soothingly, smiling politely. "I actually have a few questions if you don't mind me asking." It was clear this girl had no idea about what she had done, the puncture wound on her neck gave away that she had been drugged into doing what she had done. However she may still remember what happened. "Do you have any idea how you got here?" The girl looked at Christian apprehensively for a few moments before finally deciding that it was safe to talk to the boy in front of her.

"I-I don't know…" the girl replied slowly, clutching at her head. "The last thing I remember is walking down one of the school corridors to…Uh…A meeting with one of the teachers." The girl then began to shake as she continued to recall the events. "Suddenly I felt someone grab me from behind and pull me into one of the other rooms! I didn't see their face; it was too dark. I felt a pain in the side of my neck and...And the next thing I know I'm here."

Christian nodded. This girl was very shook up, he needed to get her to the infirmary. "Okay, what's your name?" He asked.

"Amelia."

"Okay, Amelia, I'm going to take you to the infirmary. Is that alright?" Amelia nodded in reply. Nodding back, Christian activated the Omnitrix and transformed into XLR8. Amelia was surprised and slightly scared by the new alien, even more so when he picked her up. However, that was soon forgotten as they shot off at staggering speeds towards the school.

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Once Christian had delivered Amelia to the infirmary, he left to go and find Moka to tell her what had happened. He found her a few minutes later; walking down the halls with a worried expression on her face. Next to her was a teacher Christian didn't recognise.

After Christian had told the teacher what had happened, the teacher went to the infirmary to check on Amelia. Christian and Moka however decided to go and get their bins, which they had left behind at the incinerator. Along the way, the pair decided that it would be best for Christian to walk Moka to and back from her modelling sessions with Ms. Ishigami. Moka wasn't on board with the idea at first for some reason, but with some pushing from Christian (and her Inner self) she reluctantly agreed to Christian's 'offer'. Once they had finally retrieved their bins and thrown away the rubbish inside of them, the pair decided to head back to their dorms. They would tell the rest of the club about what had happened the next day.

That night, Christian found himself unable to sleep. Getting up from his bed, he slightly parted his curtains to look across the way towards the window he knew was Moka's. He couldn't help but feel something bad was going to happen, and soon.

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Tuesday + Wednesday

Tuesday had passed by uneventfully. Christian had told the others what had happened with Amelia in the woods. Sure enough, they had been surprised and decided to double their efforts in order to find the true kidnapper before they could attack anymore students. The only other thing that had happened was Moka had her first modelling session with Ms. Ishigami. Christian had walked her to the art room in order to ensure that she was safe while Zack and Gin escorted Yukari and Kurumu home.

When Christian had come back to collect Moka, the vampire girl seemed extremely flustered and refused to answer any of his questions as to what she had done.

On Wednesday, the club had decided to use lunch to work as a group to piece together any evidence they had and work on figuring out what motive the kidnapper would have for taking the girls. Unfortunately, with so little evidence, they had been unable to come up with any ideas as to why the girls would be taken other than to be used for ransom.

After school, Christian once again walked Moka to the art rooms before going on a short patrol with Zack, using Blitzwolfer as a sniffer dog in order to try and track Amelia's movements before she had been drugged. Their search had led them to a store room on the third floor where they unfortunately lost the trail. There had been no sign of any struggle and, even though they hadn't expected to find it, no syringe. Blitzwolfer couldn't even pick up the scent of Amelia or the kidnapper as it seemed the room had been sprayed with aerosol. Giving up for the day, Zack returned to the dorms whilst Christian went to pick up Moka.

Once again, the vampire girl seemed extremely flustered when she left the art room and refused to talk about the session. Christian could only assume that Ms. Ishigami had been making Moka do a weird kind of modelling.

Once inside the safety of her own dorm room, Moka sighed and fell on her bed. The vampire looked to her left and stared at the calendar hung up on the back of her door. There were only two days left until Christian's birthday. Her present was almost finished, it just needed one more session before it would be perfect.

Smiling, Moka began to get herself some dinner, thoughts of her Omnitrix wielding friend filling her mind.

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Thursday

The next morning Christian woke up to the normal morning greeting; Moka drinking his blood, Kurumu near suffocating him, Yukari saving his life with a golden wash tub, the girls getting into a fight and finally Zack turning up, leaving it for them to watch the girls fight for a minute before heading to school.

In class, Christian barely listened to what the teachers were saying, his thoughts preoccupied with how to catch the kidnapper. He only noticed the lesson had ended when Moka and Kurumu poked him in the back. This sequence repeated itself throughout the day until lunch when there was a club meeting.

Once everyone had gathered together, the group began working on solving the case of the kidnappings when something surprising happened. Out of the blue, there was a knock on the club room door. Zack was the one to answer it only to discover a nervous red haired girl on the other side. "Bro, I think someone's here to see you," Zack said as he showed the girl in.

Christian looked up to see Amelia looking extremely tense. "Amelia, is there something wrong?" he asked, getting up and walking over to the girl.

Amelia's eyes darted around the room as she looked at the rest of the club. "I-is it okay i-if I talk to you please?" the red head asked timidly.

Sensing that what Amelia had to say was important, Christian nodded and followed the red head out the room; the eyes of his club mates fixed on him as he left the room.

In the corridor, Amelia leaned up against the wall and looked at Christian with big eyes. She seemed to be scared of what she wanted to say. "I-I've been remembering…" she started slowly.

"That's good." Christian replied, taking it slow as he could see Amelia was scared. "What did you remember?"

"I remember a voice telling me to be calm," Amelia told the Omnitrix bearer. "It was one I recognised too." Amelia's eyes showed the intense amount of fear they held.

Knowing this meant Amelia knew the identity of the kidnapper, Christian decided to toss subtlety out the window. "Who was it, Amelia?" Christian asked. "If you tell me, I can catch them and hopefully find the girls they've taken."

Amelia looked at Christian with teary eyes before she continued. "I-I can't be sure, but I believe the voice sounded like…Ms. Ishigami."

Christian's eyes widened in shock when he heard the name. "What?"

"I-I think the person who drugged me…was Ms. Ishigami," Amelia repeated.

Christian remained still for a few more moments before he spoke again. "Have you told a teacher yet?" he asked, knowing they may be able to help.

"N-no," Amelia replied. "I don't have any proof so I don't think they would believe me."

Christian nodded, understanding the situation. "Okay, Amelia listen closely. I want you to go and find the closest teacher and tell them what you told me."

Amelia looked at Christian with wide eyes. "What are you going to do?"

The human boy smirked at the girl before turning around and heading back to his club. "Get evidence."

Amelia watched Christian disappear into his clubroom before turning and running to find any of the teachers in the hopes they could help her.

Inside the club room, Christian found his friends all sitting around the table looking at him curiously.

"What was that about?" Yukari asked.

"A possible lead," Christian said simply, surprising his friends.

"What!?" they all shouted.

"But I can't be sure so I'm going to go and check it out on my own." Christian continued to explain, turning to once again leave the room. However, just before he exited, he turned to look at Moka. "By the way, I think it may be wise to stay away from the art rooms for now."

Before anyone could ask him what he meant, he'd already gone. The five remaining members of the Newspaper Club looked at each dubiously before they began discussing what Christian's lead might be. However, a certain pinkette at the table couldn't escape the bad feeling she had that something was going to happen.

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Christian had made his way to the art room on the other side of the school. He was hiding behind one of the large trees that was close to the classroom. He had been waiting for Ms. Ishigami to leave so that he could have a snoop. Unfortunately, the art teacher seemed to have no intention of leaving. Sighing in annoyance, he was about to see if there was another way to get in when the door to the classroom swung open to reveal the art teacher.

Ms. Ishigami walked out and locked the door behind her. She then proceeded to walk off towards the school, presumably to get lunch. Christian watched her walk away silently, however as he watched he had moved his leg and stepped on a fallen branch of a tree, making a snap. As Christian pressed himself against the tree so that he wouldn't be seen, Ms. Ishigami whirled around, a terrifying look in her eyes as she scanned the area for an intruder. From where he was, the teacher was unable to see Christian but he could see her. Scarily, he could have sworn he had seen her hair move.

After a moment of tense silence, Ms. Ishigami finally turned around and continued her on way towards the main building. Only once she had disappeared from his sight did the Plumber come out from his hiding spot. Making his way over to the locked door, Christian activated the Omnitrix and scrolled through the selections. "Big Chill will make this easy," he said to himself as he pushed down the dial. Once the normal green light had faded Christian was revealed to be an alien that most definitely was not Big Chill. The alien was a large, silicon based humanoid whose body was composed of pale green crystals. On his back were two crystal like shards that stuck outwards. He wore a black uniform that exposed his arms and had a single green stripe running down it. The alien wore a green and white belt around its waist which was where the Omnitrix symbol was present.

"Diamondhead? I wanted Big Chill!" Sighing, he assumed he had accidentally selected the wrong icon. He had no idea how though.

Deciding to use what he had been given, Diamondhead moved his finger towards the lock of the door and morphed his the tip of one of his fingers in to a key and inserted into the lock. The appendage morphed once more to fit the lock. Opening the door with a click, Diamondhead walked inside, having to bend down slightly so the crystals on his back would fit.

He then took a look around the classroom. It was empty except from the desks and art supplies and, unlike when He'd been there earlier that week, seemed completely uninviting. Diamondhead began to take a look around, anxious to get out of the art room before Ms. Ishigami returned. Suddenly, the crystal-like alien heard something which alarmed him. The sound of a girl weeping. He quickly tracked the sound to a room where Ms. Ishigami kept art supplies. Now that he was closer to the door, Diamondhead could definitely make out the sounds of sobbing coming from the other side. Concerned, he attempted to open the door to find it was locked. Not even bothering to unlock this one, the crystalline alien broke the door down with a swift kick.

Stepping inside, he was shocked to see several statues. Each one depicted a girl completely naked and striking a pose you would normally see a super model do at art shows. However, the faces of the statues all depicted fear, anger, pain and most importantly; betrayal. The strangest thing was that was that the statues were crying. Actual tears descended like rivers from their eyes. What's more, Diamondhead actually found he recognised them. Each one was a match for the girls who had disappeared. However, there was one statue that had not been in the folder and that was one that depicted a girl with a strange hairstyle. Diamondhead instantly recognised her as the girl who had appeared in Ishigami's lesson on Monday.

Diamondhead gritted his teeth in anger when he realised what Ms. Ishigami had done to these girls. "That bitch is going to pay for this," the alien swore.

"Hello?!"

Diamondhead was brought out of his anger by the sound of a very familiar voice. The diamond-like alien stepped out of the storeroom to see a very shocked Moka.

"Chr-Chris? Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me," Diamondhead responded. "What are you doing here? I told you not to come."

Moka looked nervous as she looked at the broken door behind Diamondhead. "I- I felt something was wrong," Moka explained. "What's in that room?"she asked, moving towards Diamondhead. She gasped when she saw the statues.

"It appears our lovely art teacher has been hoarding a bunch of crying statues," Diamondhead said, anger seeping out of his voice. "And I suspect they haven't always been stone."

Moka looked to Diamondhead, sadness evident in her eyes. "Why would Ms. Ishigami do this?"

"I don't know," he answered, his glared intensifying. "But I'm going to find out."

"My, my," a voice said from behind the two teens, freezing them to their cores. The pair whirled around to see Ms. Ishigami standing in the door way. The image of a caring, enthusiastic and loving teacher was shattered instantly by the downright sinister the teacher was giving them. "It appears you've found my little collection." the teacher continued, looking at the vampire and alien like they were pieces of meat.

"You!" Diamondhead shouted, moving to stand in front of Moka in order to protect her whilst morphing his right arm in to a blade. "You kidnapped the girls and turned them into statues, didn't you!?"

"I'm going to assume that's you, Mr. Hawke," Ms. Ishigami replied calmly, her frown turning into a wide grin; further infuriating the transformed teen. "You are a smart one aren't you? Perhaps too smart."

"Why did you do this Ms. Ishigami?!" Moka asked, clearly distressed. "What was the point?!"

Ishigami began chuckling. "Why? Well, for art of course!" she proclaimed enthusiastically, walking past the alien and vampire duo towards her 'art'. "It is my belief that beauty should be preserved. In doing this, I am preserving their beauty. I'm doing these ladies a public service by helping them preserve their beautiful youth." Moving over to one of the girls, Ishigami began caressing the petrified girl's stone face. "I was planning to add you, Moka, to my collection on the last day of our modelling sessions. You always were flustered after those. All well, I guess I'll just have to accelerate my plans"

Moka took a step back in fear as Diamondhead moved defensively in front her. "I will die before I let that happen." He pointed his still morphed arm at Ishigami.

"I guess my course of action is clear then." Ishigami scowled as she turned to face the duo. Suddenly, cracks began to appear in the skin around her eyes and tinged a light green. Her eyes turned yellow and her pupils slitted. The crazed teacher removed her bandana as her hair turned green and transformed in to a mass of hair-like snakes. It was clear from her appearance that Ishigami was a medusa, better known as a gorgon. "I'll turn you to stone first and then your little girlfriend!" Ishigami cried as several of her snakes lashed out and bit Diamondhead's arm.

"Christian, no!" Moka cried out in a panic. However, despite the fact Diamondhead had a snake in his arm, he simply smirked.

"I'm already stone you fruit loop!" Diamondhead shouted victoriously as the snake like hairs retracted in pain with their teeth broke. Ishigami barely had any time to look shocked before Diamondhead had grabbed a hold of her and threw her into the art studio before moving to once again defend Moka. "I will never allow you to hurt Moka! So bring your worst, Ishigami!"

Ishigami, who was recovering from the sudden attack, scowled at the crystal alien. "That form of yours…is impressive," the gorgon admitted. "However, I know your weakness. You can only remain in monster form for a certain amount of time. And you have been in that form for a while." Ishigami smirked, causing Diamondhead's green eyes to widen. "You only have so much time left."

Realising that she was speaking the truth, Diamondhead knew he needed to end this quickly. Morphing both his other hand into a blade, Diamondhead was ready to cut down any of the snake-like hairs that came at him or Moka.

Diamondhead slashed at Ishigami, trying to lay a hit. Unfortunately, the gorgon was too flexible and agile allowing her to dodge every swipe. Changing tactic, Diamondhead shifted his hands into two clusters of crystals and began shooting small projectiles out at the deranged teacher. In order to block the shards, Ishigami kicked up one of the tables allowing the shards to pierce it but not go through. Moving the table across, Ishigami found herself hammered by... Well a hammer, that apparently Diamondhead had forged with his right hand.

Stepping forward, the crystal alien prepared himself to finish Ishigami. However, he was stopped by a noise that froze both him and Moka.

The sound of the Omnitrix timing out.

"No! Not now!" Diamondhead cried as the beeping ended and with a flash of emerald, he reverted back into Christian.

The sound of movement alerted Christian and Moka to Ishigami, who had recovered from Diamondhead's attack. "Times up," she said, a deranged, sinister smile plastering her face. The medusa sent out legions of her snakes that wrapped themselves around parts of Christian and Moka's body, biting them in the progress.

"Ahh!" the pair cried in pair as the snakes sunk their fangs in to their legs.

"You see, when my snakes bite you, they infect you with my venom," Ishigami explained maliciously. "Soon you'll be nothing more than lovely additions to my collection.

Suddenly, Christian felt a strange sensation in his legs. Looking down, the Plumber realised his legs were slowly turning to stone. "What the…?"

"Chris! What's happening?!" Moka cried as her body became grey.

"Petrifying, isn't it?" Ishigami quipped, before using her snakes to re-position the pair's bodies. She moved them so Christian and Moka were stood facing one another, looking each other in the eyes. Christian's right hand was placed on Moka's cheek whilst his left hand was placed on her waist.

Moka's were placed on Christian's chest, pressing them together. The two were now so close they were practically kissing. At that moment, Ishigami began to cackle. "This…Shall be my greatest masterpiece!" the teacher cried, mesmerised by the scene in front of her. "Two lovers… Wrapped in each other's arms for all of eternity, never allowed to enjoy the feeling of each other's lips. A truly tragic yet artistic moment to capture."

"You're insane!" Christian shouted angrily.

"If perusing true art is crazy…Then I suppose I am," Ishigami shot back.

"Christian…" Moka whimpered as she felt more parts of her legs turn to stone. However, Christian's transformation was a lot further along than Moka's. His entire lower body was now completely stone and it was spreading faster. Christian assumed the effects were faster for him because he was human.

"Everything will be okay Moka." Christian said, trying to reassure her, despite the fact he was pretty scared himself. The flesh on his arms was now beginning to turn to stone. Suddenly, Christian's eyes widened when he saw the Rosario glinting around Moka's neck. If he could reach it, he could save Moka. Using his remaining strength, Christian forced his stone covered right arm to move from Moka's cheek and forced it down towards the Rosario. Unfortunately, the stone had reached Christian's elbow, meaning he wasn't close enough to pull it off. Christian growled in frustration before a crazy idea came into his head. He could still move his back meaning he could lean forward. But if he did that…

Knowing it was the only way to save her, the teen made a decision. Looking deep in to the eyes of his best friend, Christian said, "Moka I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Moka said sadly. "You tried your best."

"Not for that. For this."

Before she could ask what Christian meant, Moka felt the new sensation of something press against her lips. After a brief moment of shock, Moka realised that Christian was kissing her. Her widened eyes softened and she closed them, forgetting about her surroundings and eased into it, enjoying the feeling of Christian's warm lips against her own. Time stood still for the girl as she forgot about the danger she was in.

At the sides, Ishigami was going mental, ranting about how they weren't allowed to kiss however Moka wasn't listening, she didn't even care. She just wanted to enjoy the moment. Perhaps being stuck like this forever wouldn't be so bad? Suddenly a bright, violet light engulfed the room as a wave of monster energy flooded in to it.

Surprised at first, Moka then realised Christian had pulled off the Rosario, using the kiss in order to get close enough to do it. As she transformed, she enjoyed the last few moments she had before Inner Moka replaced her. 'Please…Save Christian…' Outer Moka begged her Inner self mentally as her consciousness was faded.

The thunderous release of monster energy was too much for Ishigami's snakes to handle. As the pressure became too much, they tore apart, causing Ishigami to shriek in agony.

"You savages, you know nothing of art!" Ishigami ranted. However, it fell on deaf ears. The medusa looked to find Moka's transformed state. The silver haired vampire was still had her lips against Christian's, whose entire body was now stone with the exception of his face.

Finally breaking apart, the pair stared at each other for a brief moment before Christian said with his last breath, "Win."

Finally, Christian's body was cold and unmoving stone. Inner Moka remained still for a few moments. Ishigami watched as the unsealed vampire raised her hand to caress the stone boy's face, looking at the new statue with sad eyes.

Suddenly, Inner Moka's head snapped round to glare at Ishigami, her face ablaze with anger. "You…" she growled with an intense amount of malice as she moved away from the stone Christian and walked towards Ishigami. "You are responsible for this…"

For the first time since she had arrived at the school, Ishigami felt absolute terror. She knew that angering this girl meant hell to pay. Desperately trying to get away from the approaching, angry vampire. "Please, stay away!" Ishigami pleaded, absolutely terrified.

"Shut up!" Inner Moka snapped, gritting her teeth as she steeled herself. Jumping up in to the air, twisting several times in the air. "It is far past time," Inner Moka started as she brought down her stone covered leg down on top on Ishigami's head. "You learned your place!"

The blow was so powerful, it completely knocked Ishigami out. As she crumpled to the floor, a trail of blood trickled down her head. After, reluctantly, checking that the medusa was still alive, Inner Moka made her way over to the stone Christian. Staring at him for a few moments, Inner Moka took the Rosario that the stone Christian was loosely holding. Placing it in her pocket, Inner Moka made her way to the door in order to get help. However, before she left, the proud vampire couldn't help but look back towards the stone Christian; subconsciously touching her lips before she finally headed towards the school.

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Friday: present

As Outer Moka sat staring at the Christian's stone body lying on the infirmary bed, she couldn't help but feel an intense sadness. Christian was in this situation because he had protected her…Again. He was always there for her and now he had paid the ultimate price.

The previous day, after Inner Moka had fetched the members of the Newspaper Club, they had returned to discover that all the girls Ishigami had petrified had returned to normal. They laid unconscious on the floor, completely naked. After Zack had knocked Gin out with a swift punch to the face, the rest of the newspaper club fetched a collection of towels to cover the girls' bodies so they could move them to the infirmary. Christian on the other hand wasn't so lucky. The boy had remained a statue throughout the process of the events. Kurumu, Yukari and Moka (After the Rosario had been placed back on the choker) had remained by Christian's side until they had been forced to leave.

Before the girls left, the nurse had assured them that Christian would eventually return to flesh and blood. As he was a 'monster' the medusa's effects would eventually wear off. She had assumed the only reason it hadn't worn off yet was because Christian was the last person transformed by Ishigami's powers. That was a great thing for the girls to hear, that is…Until the nurse went into further detail. Apparently, if a medusa bit a monster, turned them to stone and was then later defeated, the monster would return to normal. However…If a medusa turned a human to stone, there was no going back. The human would remain like that forever.

Of course that didn't really bother Kurumu and Yukari as they believed Christian was a monster, they believed it was only a matter of time until he returned to normal. Moka on the other hand was distraught. Out of the three girls she was the only one who knew Christian was human, the only one who knew he was now stuck as a statue.

The pinkette hadn't been able to tell her friends about Christian's fate, believing they would leave him and not except who he is…Was. Therefore, Moka was forced to keep her emotions to herself as she returned home with the girls. Zack had remained behind to watch Ishigami in case she got a second wind and decided to make a run for it; not that she could after what Inner Moka done to her, therefore the girls were alone.

Only once she had returned to her room did Moka let out her concealed emotions, breaking down and crying into her pillow. She cried for her friend who was in a stone coma. Not even her inner self was able to calm her as she too distraught to listen. Moka had gone to sleep that night feeling lonelier than she ever had before.

Now, as she stood before the stone figure of the boy who had given her hope, she found she had none left to spare. Leaning her head forwards on to the bed, Moka once again began to cry. "Please, come back to me," she pleaded. "Our friends still need you…I still need you." As Moka spoke, she missed the Omnitrix on Christian's wrist light up at her words. "Please, come back."

"MOKA AKASHIYA VOICE KEY RECOGNISED," a sudden voice sounded that resembled Christian's.

"Huh?" Moka asked, looking up only to see no one other than herself. "Who's there?"

"MOKA AKASHIYA VOICE KEY RECOGNISED." Looking towards where the voice had come from, Moka discovered the Omnitrix on Christian's arm was blinking rapidly.

"The Omnitrix?"

"ANOMALY HAS BEEN DETECTED IN PRIMARY USER'S DNA CODE." The Omnitrix spoke. "REQUESTING PERMISSION FROM SECONDARY USER TO CORRECT ANOMALY."

Moka realised what the Omnitrix was saying. Getting up, Moka practically screamed, "Yes, permission granted! Please help Christian!"

"COMMAND CODE REQUIRED."

"1-1-0-1-0-1!" Moka cried desperately, pleading to the high heavens that whatever the Omnitrix was about to do would work.

"COMMAND CODE VERIFIED," the Omnitrix said as it began to glow brighter. "OMNITRIX WILL NOW PURGE USER OF FOREIGN DNA." Suddenly a green membrane of energy spread out across Christian's stone body. Within seconds the membrane covered the teen from head to toe. Moka watched in amazement as the membrane glowed brighter until Christian could no longer be seen. It wasn't bright enough to force Moka to cover her eyes so she was able to watch as the glow began to fade, revealing peach coloured skin instead of stone grey. When the light had finally disappeared, Christian was revealed to be completely back to normal.

Moka found herself unable to move as she stared at her friend in absolute happiness, tears of joys covering her eyes. "Christian…?" Her voice was barely more audible than a whisper. Suddenly the teen's eyes opened slowly and wearily. He turned to his left and as his vision became more focused he was able to make out the image of the pinkette beside him.

Smiling, Christian looked at the vampire in front of him. "Hey," he said tiredly.

"Hey," Moka replied, smiling back, tears beginning to flow freely down her face. Suddenly and without warning, Moka leapt forward at Christian who had only just managed to sit up in the bed. "I was so worried about you!" she cried in to his chest. "When the nurse told me humans bitten by a medusa never turn back, I didn't think I would ever be able to see you again!"

Moka felt Christian's arms wrap around her as he comforted her. "I'm sorry I worried you," he said soothingly. "I promise I won't let it happen again."

Moka's smile never ceased as she snuggled closer into her friend, happy to have her Christian back. Inside the Rosario, Inner Moka, even though she would never admit it, was relieved to know Christian had recovered. The human boy…Had grown on her slightly over the time she had known him. It didn't mean he was excused for kissing her without permission though. He would pay for that later.

Back with Christian and Outer Moka, the pair were still hugging, enjoying each other's company. Finally separating, the pair continued to look each other in the eyes. After a few moments of silence, Christian finally spoke; his cheeks tinged red. "Moka, I need to apologise for what happened when I unsealed you," he said. "I know it was wrong of me to do so but…"

Moka's cheeks also rouged as she remembered the moments before she transformed. "I-It's ok…" Moka stopped him before he could say any more. "I understand why you did it…"

An awkward silence settled between the two teens as they both relived the moment that happened between them. Thankfully, they were interrupted by the sound of the door to the infirmary opening. Christian and Moka looked away from each other to see their friends from the Newspaper Club standing in the doorway, looks of relief on their faces.

"CHRISTIAN!" Kurumu and Yukari cried joyously as they ran into the room and tackled the teen away from an ever so slightly jealous Moka.

"Good to see you're back, Bro." Zack said with a wide smile on his face as he walked into the room.

"Yeah, I guess…" Gin said sarcastically which earned him a punch in the chest from Zack.

"Hey guys," Christian said as he struggled against the holds of Kurumu and Yukari. "It's good to see you."

"Not as good as it is to see you!" Kurumu cried as she attempted to nuzzle her way closer to Christian. "I was so worried about you. A lot more than those other girls were." Kurumu remarked.

"No!" Yukari cried as she tried to push Kurumu away. "I was way more worried about him then you were!"

Chuckling, Christian pulled both girls in to a hug, making both their cheeks warmer by the gesture. "Thank you both for worrying about me," he said simply. "I promise I won't make you do it very often."

"Somehow I doubt that," Zack remarked as he stood watching the happy scene in front of him.

Smirking at what Zack had said, Christian quickly realised he didn't know what day it was. "How long was I…stone…for?" he asked curiously.

"Just a little under a day," Gin replied. "It's Friday now."

"Right…" Christian replied slowly, knowing he had something to do.

Moka, seeing Christian's expression, remembered that it was his birthday; meaning she needed to finish her gift, quickly.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Christian had spent most of the day in the infirmary while the nurse checked there were no after effects of being turned to stone. Once he had finally been discharged, he walked back to the dorms with the girls and Zack; Gin had long since run off somewhere. They spent an hour or two hanging out in Christian's dorm room, playing cards and chatting before Moka had to leave to go and run an 'errand'. At that point the others left, agreeing to meet at the club the next day to work on their first newspaper.

After Kurumu, who had been the most reluctant, had left; Christian decided to change into some casual clothing. Once he had eaten some dinner, he decided it was time to do what he had to. Putting on his shoes, he left the dorms and headed out. After a few minutes of walking he came to a hill he had discovered where you could actually see the stars. Standing tall, Christian stood still and looked up at the night stars. This was something he did every year on his birthday.

He would go out and look at the stars like he used to do with his parents. It helped him feel like they weren't truly gone, that they were still watching him and looking after him. It was these moments where Christian would renew his promises to his parents and talk to them about what had been happening in his life.

"Hey Mum, Hey Dad…" Christian greeted, directing his words to the stars. "It's been another year and I haven't come any closer to avenging you," he said sadly. "But I won't stop looking. I won't rest until I find the one who killed you. But you already know that…So I guess I should tell you about what's been happening recently. Well, I finally became an official member of the Plumbers and I got my first assignment. It's quite a big one so I don't think I'll be back going back to Bellwood for a while. Boy…I have a lot to tell you." Christian spent the next few minutes explaining about why he was at Yokai Academy and about the friends he had made during his time there. However, when he came to talk about a certain vampire girl, Christian spoke with so much pride you would think he was married to her. "She an amazing person," he finally said. "I know you guys would have loved to meet her."

"Chris…?"

Christian spun around to see his pink haired, vampire friend standing in front of him, a large covered object under her arm.

"Moka? What are you doing here?"

"I saw you leave the dorms and decided to follow you so… So I could give you this." Moka replied, gesturing towards the covered object.

"What's that?"

"I-It's a present," Moka answered, positioning the gift so that Christian would be able to see it. "You see…The reason I was modelling was so that I could get extra lessons with Ms. Ishigami to make this," she explained, removing the cover to reveal a painting.

The painting depicted Christian in his school uniform, sitting at his desk in homeroom, smiling happily. The painting was extremely well done and you could tell that a lot of care had gone into it.

"The title of the piece Ms. Ishigami set was, 'What's Important to Me'. She set it so she could help me during lessons to complete this," Moka explained.

To say Christian was touched was an understatement. He looked from the painting to Moka repeatedly before speaking. "Moka…It's lovely but why did you do this for me."

Looking nervously at the ground, Moka replied, "Mr. Tennyson told me today was your birthday. And…Also why you don't celebrate it."

"He did, did he?" Christian responded, frowning.

"I wanted to do something special for you as you're important to me," the pinkette explained. "I didn't want you to be unhappy."

Christian frown quickly changed into a warm smile as he walked over to his friend and wrapped her in a hug. "Thank you, Moka. You truly are the greatest friend a guy could ask for." Smiling, Moka returned the hug as she blushed at how close the two were. Once the hug was broken, Christian couldn't help but ask, "Do you wanna stay here and watch the stars for a bit? I plan to go back soon anyway."

Surprised by the request, Moka nodded, happy to be able to spend some time with Christian.

After moving the painting so that it would be safe, Christian laid down on the top of the hill, side by side, where they gazed happily up into the night sky. Every so often Christian would point out a planet he knew about. Moka was amazed by his vast knowledge of other planets and found it fascinating to be able to listen to what he knew.

"Christian…?" Moka started timidly, unsure whether she should ask her next question.

"What is it Moka?"

"I was just wondering…If you were to ever go back into space, would it at all be possible…If I could come with you?"

Christian smiled as he reached out and grabbed hold of her hand, causing the two to blush by the sudden contact. Christian looked at Moka and realised just how beautiful she looked bathed in the light of the moon. "It would be an honour to have you with me," he told her. Smiling, the two returned to looking at the stars, not realising that they were still holding each other's hands. As the night continued on, two of the night stars above the pair shone brighter than the rest as they happily looked down upon the human/vampire duo and fore sore what was yet to come.

I loved writing this chapter, as I said before it is one of my favourites in the manga. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it.

Next chapter I will be revealing Zack's conversation with the security committee member from the last chapter.

Please leave your reviews and I'll see you next time.