Chapter 9
The Judge walked up to Sean. "I'm ready."
Sean sighed. "Finally!"
Damiana walked up, sitting on his lap and kissing him.
Sean smiled. "Have fun."
Wolfe walked up. "Too bad you can't come with."
Sean glared at him. "You know, I won't be in this chair forever. Besides, what if your girlfriend shows up?"
"I'll give her a kiss," Wolfe answered. He walked over to the Judge. "Oh, don't you look spiffy!"
The Judge stared after him. "'Spiffy'?"
Back at the tower…
Ryan and Michael dropped the wooden box on the coffee table.
"Happy birthday, Kelly, hope you like the color," Ryan said.
Brenda glanced at him and then started to pry the box open with a crowbar. "We can try the factory, but they might have already left. We'll have to figure out where they're gonna go to start this thing." She finally opened the box.
Kelly looked inside and nodded. "This works."
Paige walked into the room. "Is there anything I can do?"
Kelly glared without bothering to turn around and look at her. "Leave."
Paige looked at her. "I just wanna help."
Tech looked at her, sighed, and turned his back to her. "She said go."
Paige looked at him for a few seconds and finally left.
Ryan walked up to his older sister. "Want me to show you how to use it?"
Kelly nodded. "Please do."
Back at the factory…
Kelly led the group in, but they found no one there. "Great! They already left for their kills!"
"And we have no clue where that is," Lexi groaned.
"Well, it'd have to be somewhere crowded," said Benny, "The Judge needs bodies, right?"
"What-about-the-club?" Rev suggested.
"It's closed," Robert corrected his father.
"That doesn't help much," said Wendy, "It's not like people are just gonna line up to get massacred."
"No, but…" Nadine started, "If I were to line up, I know where I'd go."
At a shopping mall…
Wolfe, Damiana, and the Judge walked into the building with every Vampire in their ranks (except Sean).
A man walked up and the Judge held up his hand to him, frying him completely.
Wolfe smiled and turned to the Vamps. "Lock the exits, boys."
The Vamps all ran off.
Wolfe looked at the Judge again. "It's all yours."
Down the corridor, the gang made it to the side hallway.
"You guys stay back, damage control only," Brenda instructed.
"And we should probably try to take out any lesser Vamps if we can," Ace added.
Kelly nodded. "Fine with me. As long as you let me handle the Smurf."
Back in the main corridor, the Judge held up his hands and sent a beam of fire at the crowd, a stream of light flowing from one into another until all of them were in range of the attack.
"Oh, goody," Damiana said.
Suddenly, the Judge's attack was cut off when an arrow pierced him in the chest. "Who dares?!"
"I dare."
Wolfe, Damiana, and the Judge all turned to see Kelly standing there on top of an old popcorn machine.
Kelly put down her crossbow. "Think I got his attention."
The Judge smirked. "You're a fool. No weapon forged can harm me."
Kelly shrugged. "That was then." She then picked up their surprise weapon: a rocket launcher. "This is now."
Wolfe and Damiana understood what was about to happen and instantly rushed to get away from the line of fire.
Kelly prepared to fire.
The gang stayed back to hide.
Wolfe and Damiana moved for the railing.
The Judge just looked at Kelly. "What's that do?"
That's when Kelly fired.
The blast hit the Judge dead-on, destroying him in a burst of fire that sent Wolfe and Damiana flying over the railing of the stairs they were standing on top of.
The two head Vamps landed on the floor.
Wolfe looked at Kelly, glared at her fiercely, and ran off.
Damiana got up from the ground, whimpering as the ash of the fire spread. She shrieked and raced away.
The group rejoined at the concession stand.
Kelly dropped the rocket launcher. "Best present ever."
"Knew you'd like it," Ryan said.
Kelly jumped down from the popcorn machine. "But we can't be sure he's dead. You guys better find the pieces and make sure they stay separate."
The gang headed out, leaving Kelly standing there.
"Oh, sure, we get the pieces," Wendy complained under her breath, "Our jobs stink."
Just as the smoke from the explosion caused the fire sprinklers to go off and drench them all, Kelly caught sight of Wolfe running off in the panic. She raced after him as fast as she could go, pushing her way through the screaming crowd. Finally, she made it to the lobby of the movie theater. There was nothing there but a bunch of water (and the stuff a typical movie theater has in its lobby). Kelly looked around. Nothing. She turned around to go back and found Wolfe standing there. He seized the moment to quickly backhand her. She fell to the ground.
Wolfe smirked. "You know what the hardest part was? Pretending I loved you! If I'd known how easily you'd give it up, I wouldn't have even bothered."
Kelly glared at him. "It doesn't work anymore. I know you're not Austin."
"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? But that doesn't matter anymore. The only thing that does is that you made me the man I am today!"
Kelly growled, Vamped, and kicked him.
He just responded in kind and grabbed her to throw her into the wall.
Back in the lobby, the gang was going through the water to find the remains of the giant blue demon known as the Judge.
Robert just stood there, looking at one. "Uh…arm!"
Back where the fight was going on, Kelly was knocked down again. She got up, soaking wet.
Wolfe simply punched her in the snout and kicked her in the gut to knock her down a third time. "You're not quitting on me already, are you?"
Kelly glared at him, still in Vamp form, her ears pinned down from moisture. He'd just set her off. She held up her hand to form a magic bolt and threw it at him, knocking him into the wall. She then bicycle-kicked herself up and ran over there to grab him by the collar and throw him into the concession stand. She grabbed him by the shirt, punched him, and threw him into the wall again, this time whipping out a stake as she turned back into human form.
Wolfe just looked at her.
She looked at him…and slowly put down her stake.
Wolfe smiled. "You can't do it. You can't kill me."
She shook her head…and kicked him in the groin.
He groaned in pain and collapsed.
Kelly gave him one last glare and then walked away. "Give me time."
A little while later…
The group came back to the tower.
"Glad that's over," said Lucy.
"It's not quite over yet," Daniella spoke up. She looked at Kelly to find her sitting on the couch and moping again. She sighed and walked over to her, sitting down next to her. "And I suppose you know that." Kelly just looked at the floor. "And he's bound to come after you especially. Given his nature, he'll strike out at the thing that made him most human."
Kelly sighed, keeping her eyes on the ground. "You must be so disappointed in me."
"No," Tech spoke up, sitting down on the other side of the couch.
Kelly looked at him. "But this is all my fault."
"I don't think so. We all know how much you loved him. And he's proven plenty of times that he loved you. But you couldn't have known this was gonna happen. And the days ahead of us are definitely gonna be hard, but if it's guilt you're looking for, Kelly, we're not gonna give it to you."
Kelly looked at everyone to find them all giving her the same reaction.
Buddy then raced up with the other kids. "Guys! I think I found my power."
"Boy, you guys are going fast," commented Wendy.
"What happened?" asked Nadine.
"Just watch." Buddy closed his eyes. "I'm imagining a giant chocolate cake!" He opened one eye and looked around the room. He then opened the other eye and saw that nothing had changed. "Huh. It worked two minutes ago." Just then, a giant chocolate cake appeared in the middle of the room. Buddy turned around to look at it. "And there it goes."
"So you just imagine stuff and it appears out of nowhere?" asked Lexi. Buddy nodded. "Wow."
"Great, now they're gonna think my power is stupid," Oliver sighed.
"You found it?" Lexi asked.
"Yeah. I've been talking to people in Acme Australia from here for over an hour."
"How…what…" Daniella then realized what happened. "Oliver, that's your other power, communication! You can talk to anyone by just thinking hard about that person and then talking and they respond the same way!"
"Whoo-hoo!" Virginia cried, "We all have all our powers!"
Kelly smiled.
Nadine then looked at Buddy's giant chocolate cake and got an idea. "Hmm." She held up her hand to make a fireball and light the candle Buddy had stuck on there. "Huh? Huh?"
Kelly half-smiled. "Nadine."
Nadine looked at her. "What? I finally get to do that and you're not even gonna try to make a wish?"
Kelly just looked back at the floor. "I'm just gonna let it burn."
Sophie looked at her daughter and took her hand.
This wasn't exactly a fight they could easily win…
