A.N: One chapter away from the epilogue! Wooo! After a long time of writing and minor setbacks, I'm now proud to announce the confrontation. The longest chapter yet!

Thanks to Sailorstar165 for corrections!

12. ATTENTION: DO NOT POINT TOWARDS EYES

Martin stumbled into his room and turned around just in time to catch his sister, who fell out of thin air just as he had.

"What was that?" he asked, surprised. Never before had he been vacuumed out of a room; the prospect itself was enough to get his mind reeling. Were there pipes leading to virtually everywhere?

"It's WOOHP's equivalent to the portals," M.O.M answered, having landed on her feet thanks to years of practice. She then laid the multiple contraptions Jerry had given her on the desk and headed to the bathroom to change into the new uniform.

Martin turned on the stereo and tapped a foot to the beat while lying on the top bed. Diana leafed through one of Martin's books, one she'd given him and that, by the look of things, had yet to be read.

"Let's go," M.O.M said, coming out of the bathroom and already calling Billy. It took him unusually long to answer, and she was about to call again, when he finally picked up.

"Billy, gather everybody and tell them to hide. Then head to my office and meet us in the elevator. I assume Armin's there already," she said quickly, exchanging only a couple more sentences with Billy before hanging up and creating a portal.

Before crossing, though, she turned to look at the siblings, who had both followed her to the blue square. "Here it is," she started, looking first at Diana, then Martin, "plain and simple. This will be dangerous."

"We know," replied Martin, interrupting.

M.O.M just nodded. "And, given the circumstances and previous history, you have the right to stay out of it."

Diana let out an unlikely chuckle, and her grin was a mirror image of Martin's.

"You aren't going to get rid of us that easily," he commented finally, intending to lighten the mood just like Diana.

M.O.M granted them a small smile, and Diana added, "Of course we're coming."

"Thank you," was the reply, and M.O.M handed each one a rifle, carrying Billy's, and held on to the Plexiglas cage and freezing capsules in her pockets. She crossed into the portal.

The Center was a disaster, and while Billy had been nice enough to downplay it, now it came as an even bigger surprise. Again, they had appeared in the surveillance room, and on every screen, the walls were torn down and scarred with laser burns. Pieces of the ceiling were on the ground, and some lights were out. M.O.M finally stopped in front of a screen and glared at it for a while before wordlessly moving on along the narrow hallway. This time, they followed it to the end, where there was a small door. M.O.M opened it carefully and hurried to the elevator. After sharing a quick glance, Martin and Diana followed.

There was no hovering alien to be seen. Martin looked around for their friend and asked the obvious. "Where's Billy?"

"He had more than enough time to get here," M.O.M mused.

Diana gasped after finally glancing down just as the elevator doors slid shut. She'd found Billy, tied and gagged, on the floor. Immediately, she knelt down and untied him.

Once he finally removed his own gag, the first question came from M.O.M. "What happened?" she asked after handing him the rifle.

He looked at it, nodded in appreciation, and took a deep breath to reply. "Do you remember I told you we still had a loose monster?" he asked M.O.M, who nodded. "It's the shape-shifter."

She sighed, looking up as if asking for patience from the heavens, and then looked back at the small alien. "But you're okay," she stated, finally pushing the button on the elevator. As it started to make its way up to her office, she asked, "What cell block was the shape-shifter in?" She still had to plan who would be responsible for catching him, which depended, partly, on the danger it posed. The levels were stated in the cellblock they were contained in. The Gatekeeper, for example, was one of the most dangerous and therefore had a cell in Block E.

"C," Billy replied, rubbing his wrists to get the blood to flow back into them. She sighed in relief; they could handle him easily.

The door to the elevator opened, leaving them in front of the purple doors leading to M.O.M's office. She steeled herself and took a hesitant step forward. Before opening the doors, though, she explained the plan in more detail.

She closed her eyes briefly before typing in the code that would unlock the office and apprehensively watched the doors slide to the sides. The lights were on and everything seemed to be in its usual spot, as if Armin hadn't touched anything. The only thing that betrayed his presence was the chuckle that followed the closing doors.

"Finally," he started. "I thought you'd never get here." He was leaning against the wall and was met with four lasers pointed to his head. He chuckled again, taking one step in their direction. "You wound me deeply," he said in mock hurt, and cackled. "I expected a warmer welcome. What do you say I show you how it's done?"

"Careful," warned M.O.M as Armin started to groan and change. He grew at least fifteen centimeters, and hair appeared on his arms and head until finally he looked down at them as a half-transformed werewolf. With an animalistic grin, he leaped forward at Martin, who stepped to the side, leaving Armin to land on the desk.

"What's wrong with your hair, kid?" he asked with a raspy voice, tilting his head at Martin, who had turned around. "Gravity not working?"

Martin, having had enough, asked M.O.M, "Now?"

She nodded, and the four of them began to power up the rifles, taking aim as best as they could, as Armin took to leaping across the room and occasionally lunging for one of them. There was a screech as sharp claws dragged along the metal of Billy's hovering chair, leaving deep scores across its surface, and shortly after, there was a scream from Diana, who had to duck down to keep her head.

Martin fired, enraged and snarling after the threat to Diana, but the shot missed and hit the painting behind M.O.M's desk, leaving the glass blackened with soot.

"Chat's over, huh?" asked Armin, and his voice turned into a howl as he finished the transformation. He snarled, showing a snout full of pointy fangs. He crouched down and opted to walk on all fours to circle around them.

"I don't like this," said Billy, following Armin with his gaze before taking aim with the rifle.

"Me neither," agreed Diana, also aiming at the monster.

Billy fired, almost certain that he would hit his target. However, Armin quickly sidestepped and avoided the laserball.

"End it, then," commanded M.O.M before taking aim at the wolf's hind leg. She exchanged a glance with Martin, who nodded reassuringly, and fired.

Armin leapt forward just in time to dodge M.O.M's laser but was wounded anyway, courtesy of Martin's shot. The werewolf yelped in pain and stopped moving, keeping his wounded paw off the floor, and snarled at Martin ferociously.

Billy pointed the nozzle of his rifle to the wolf's head, daring to hover away from M.O.M, Martin and Diana. Armin howled, and suddenly Billy was sent crashing against the wall. The shock wave hurled Martin headfirst against the desk, Diana to the hard floor, and M.O.M against one of the bookshelves. When M.O.M lifted her head, she found the source of the quake in both ends of the room: a wormhole, connecting one wall to the other.

She clenched her teeth against the rising pain from her arm and looked for Armin. Billy stood up, lamenting the loss of his hovercraft, but instead activated his human shell and picked up the rifle.

"Are you okay?" he asked M.O.M, leaning over Diana.

"Relatively," she answered before helping Martin stand.

He fell back to the floor almost immediately, clutching at his leg and wincing. "Broken," he muttered, "I think." M.O.M grimaced in sympathy.

Billy walked closer, Diana behind him. They had little time to collect themselves before Armin appeared out of one of the walls. The only indication there was of a wormhole was a slight ripple in the air. Armin neared M.O.M, growling quietly. She readied the rifle again, and Armin took a step back.

"Diana," M.O.M called, and the girl fired a blast which burned the floor before the wolf, making him retreat a couple of steps. He looked to the side and then met eyes with M.O.M's.

"No," M.O.M whispered as he leaped towards a wide-eyed Martin. "Billy!" she yelled, and aimed. The two of them fired together, and she closed her eyes, not daring to see whether Armin had reached Martin or not.

There was a whimper, and the wolf landed hard, sliding along the floor and away from Martin because of the terrible force of the blasts. He started to disintegrate into red, glowing particles that formed into a floating ball of light just above Armin's unmoving body. The spirit. The floating light, as if pulled by a magnet, zoomed away through the walls to return to the Gateway, just as they had predicted.

M.O.M let out a sigh of relief and placed the rifle on the desk before holding her wrist with her other hand. She ignored the throbbing in it and turned towards Martin. "Are you all right?" she asked. He swallowed hard and nodded, his eyes still wide open. "Billy," she continued, "can you hand Martin an icepack for his leg?"

"Sure," he answered and went to try to get them from the remains of his hovering chair.

M.O.M fished in her pocket for the freezing bubbles and cage and wordlessly handed one to Billy, who in turn gave her an icepack before handing the other three to Martin. She smiled at the alien and activated the pack before holding it to her wrist.

"He should be back soon," commented M.O.M, and she crossed the room to stand in the corner opposite to where the others were. "Billy, you know what to do, right?"

"Yes," replied the alien.

She put the icepack away and waited.

It wasn't long before a red haze formed and the spirit reappeared. It was not, however, where she had expected, and by the time she and Billy had turned toward the rising, again-possessed Armin, he had already swung an arm at Diana. The teen ducked with a yelp of surprise and retreated a few steps. A punch collided with her shoulder, sending her to the floor. She crawled back, looking away only when Martin called her.

He threw her a small object, and when she caught it and opened her hand, she smiled. She was holding Martin's compact laser pointer. With no time to waste, she pointed it directly at Armin's eyes, likely burning his retina and causing the haze to rise from him again. He lunged at Diana and hurled her against the wall. She hit her head and was knocked out cold. Martin chose that moment to fire his rifle, and Billy threw the freezing bubble to the ball of light hovering over Armin's head. Without the spirit to act as puppeteer, Armin again fell.

M.O.M took a deep breath and threw the cage towards the frozen spirit. In midair, the Plexiglas unfolded and wrapped around Väykn. M.O.M sighed in relief and whispered disbelieving, "We did it."

Billy went to the computer and sent word to the other agents to come out of hiding and to send a medical team to M.O.M's office. Martin dragged himself to a still unconscious Diana and shook her shoulder, trying to get her to wake up.

M.O.M approached him and got him to stand.

"You think Diana's all right?" he asked her with childish concern, using her for support as he let the doctors take his sister away.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," M.O.M reassured him as they slowly moved to the elevator and waited for it. Martin had an arm over her shoulders and was limping, and she again held her wrist in her good hand. The throbbing had intensified, and without the adrenaline running through her, her hand was stiffening, resulting in more pain, which she ignored in favor of getting Martin to the medical wing, which was just starting to function again.

"Here," Martin told her, handing her one of the two icepacks he held in his free hand. She smiled and thanked him, feeling the cold soothe the burning muscle.