Chapter 25:

It was one-thirty in the morning when Van Hellscream called the MHU agents to the Evil Queen's castle.

"I wanna know who's decision this was!" snapped Johander, the agent with the mohawk. "I wanna know who decided to call us here at twelve in the freakin' morning, and-!"

"Stop complaining!" Steel smacked Johander on the back of the neck, silencing him. "You weren't the one who had to pull an all-nighter just to rough up some blonde. Also, the meeting's about to start, so shut your yap,"

The door opened, and Van Hellscream entered with the Evil Queen close behind.

"Dear friends," began Van Hellscream, removing his coat at the door. "I suppose you're wondering why I've called you all here today," he took a seat at the long table, folding his hands in front of him. "You see, while we were successful in creating tension between the monsters and the fairy tale people, a certain part of our plan didn't go as expected,"

Steel groaned. "What now?"

"Raven, my daughter," began the Evil Queen, glaring at Steel. "She refused her destiny, despite everything. Furthermore, a few monsters are starting to catch on to us,"

"So," Van Hellscream continued. "What we need to do is get Raven on our side, wipe out the monsters who are figuring us out, and increase the tension between these groups. Eventually, the tension will become so great that they will wipe one another out, doing our work for us!"

As most of the agents murmured with approval, Steel raised an eyebrow. "How exactly will we get those monsters out of the way? They aren't exactly easy to defeat, as you found out," he gestured to Van Hellscream.

Yet, Van Hellscream only smirked. "Why, Steel! Don't you see? The only way to defeat a monster is with more monsters!" he stood up and parted a curtain towards the back. "Dear friends, meet Kushisake Onna," A tall, thin Asian woman decked in a large trench coat and boots stood against the wall, her hands buried within her pockets. She wore a surgical mask on her face.

"Humans," she sighed when she saw the looks on the agents' faces. "You are all so concerned with what is abnormal and what is not. You have no reason to fear me, yet you do. We will get along if you do not insult my beauty,"

"What are you trying to pull, Hellscream!?" Johander exclaimed, standing up. "A freakin' ghost!?"

Van Hellscream motioned for him to sit down. "We aren't finished, Johander. Kushisake Onna will never betray us. We are on good terms, and she is incredibly powerful,"

"Indeed," Kushisake Onna agreed.

The Evil Queen smiled a wicked smile and gripped her wine glass, remarking, "I have heard much about you, Kushisake. I am very thrilled that we will work together,"

"Indeed," Kushisake answered once more, seating herself beside Van Hellscream.

Steel cast an uncertain glance her way. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Of course it's a good idea!" a voice said, and everyone turned to the figure in the doorway. A middle-aged man with a black hat on his head graced into the room, removing the hat and smirking at Steel. "And if it isn't, someone is going to end up fricasseed,"

Steel reached for his gun, but Van Hellscream stopped him. "Hold it, Steel- that won't work on him, anyway. Allow me to introduce Robert McKennitt, or as he's known, 'The Wanderer'. Though he and I once worked against each other, I believe he will be of aide, now,"

Johander raised an eyebrow. "He looks human. You said-" before he could finish, Robert unsheathed a large pair of claws, his teeth turned razor sharp, and his eyes went from brown to frosty-white. Johander yelped and almost fell out of his chair, and Robert went back to normal.

"I'm a Wendigo," Robert stated, unbuttoning the front of his coat to reveal his neck. He wore a necklace made from human teeth around his neck: trophies. "I should have you know, I hardly ever work with humans, but I am making an exception for these next few months. You best not double-cross me, as I am very hard to kill, I've used portals to travel to about every kind of realm, and my children are my helpers. I have a son and a daughter, and both of them know black magic,"

Shaking, Johander raised his hands. "All right, all right, we got it,"

Robert crossed his arms and pursed his lips together. "Do you people trust me?"

Steel snorted. "Uh, not really,"

There was a pause, and Robert nodded at him. "Smart man,"

Robert took a seat, and Van Hellscream went on. "We have one more waiting, but the Evil Queen will be recruiting more help as time goes on. As of now, our last recruit for the day has been sitting here the entire meeting!"

The MHU agents exchanged glances with one another, confused. As they began to ask what Van Hellscream was talking about, a porcelain cup that had been sitting on the table fell to the floor and shattered. The pieces reconstructed within seconds, and they created a pale creature that rose up and stretched out its long arms.

Johander stood up in alarm, backing away. "What is that thing!?" Hair, clothes, shoes and a face all materialized on the creature, and its body shifted into that of a shapely woman's.

She jumped up on the table, kicking a foot in the air and making eyes at Johander. "Hello!" she chirped, winking. "My name's Carlotta! You're a very sexy human,"

Johander looked disgusted at first, but he soon laughed. "Uh...right back at you?"

"Get your feet off the table!" snapped the Evil Queen, startling Carlotta.

Carlotta rolled off the table and fell before the queen, stumbling to her feet and doing a curtsy with her skirt. "Of course, your majesty!" The Evil Queen made a face- she already didn't like her.

"What are you, exactly?"

"A she-demon!" answered Carlotta, crossing her arms. "Just a she-demon, not a succubus. I'm not a succubus, although I wish I was..."

"Please sit down, miss Carlotta," sighed Van Hellscream. "It's a good thing you're a shape-shifter, otherwise I would have ended you long ago,"

Carlotta only huffed at him. "You weren't saying that when I shape-shifted into your favorite Playboy model and let you-"

"Stop!" Van Hellscream put up his hand, looking mortified. He hissed through his teeth, "I thought we agreed never to speak of that,"

"Of course," snickered Carlotta, twirling her red hair. She grinned at the Evil Queen. "I can't wait for us to work together!"

Once Carlotta had sat down, the Evil Queen stood up and cleared her throat. "All these monsters will aid you in ridding the world of Monster High, protecting the humans that matter to you, and helping my daughter accept her destiny! Are there any questions?"

"Um, yes," Brick, a female agent, raised her hand. "How are we supposed to trust these monsters?! We're the Monster Hunters United! We kill monsters that are threats to humanity!"

Van Hellscream opened his mouth to answer, but Robert stopped him. "You see, miss," Robert began, his voice pleasant. "The only reason why we're helping you is that we share a common enemy,"

An agent named Peter sat up at that. "Who would that be?"

"Headmistress Nora Bloodgood," answered Kushisake Onna. "She's harmed us all in some form,"

Carlotta slammed her fist on the table. "Bitch is gonna pay!"

The Evil Queen grinned, folding her hands together. "See? We are all on the same page, so to speak! You all have nothing to worry about,"

At the same time, C.A Cupid opened up the door to her house. She stumbled inside and dropped her bags on the table, kicking off her heels and pulling herself up the stairs.

She passed her father's bedroom, where she heard his reassuring snores and the music he played to get himself to sleep. Cupid peeked into his room for a moment, watching Eros' form rise and fall as he breathed.

Once she'd opened the door to her own room, she didn't even bother to tell her father why she was home and instead flopped down on her bed, sighing an exhausted sigh. She inhaled the warm scent of her sheets, right before the tears rolled down her cheeks.

"My fault, my fault," she whimpered, her shoulders quaking. "All of this was my fault..."

Morning finally came.

Cerise's eyes fluttered open, and she squinted a bit at the bright sunlight. As she rolled over on her front, she suddenly became aware of her surroundings: she was lying on a padded seat in what appeared to be some sort of carriage, there was a fleece blanket bunched up beside her, and the whole place smelled like pine needles and plastic. Where am I!?

"Hey, you're up!" a friendly voice chirped, and Cerise turned around.

Brocko was sitting in the seat in front of her, and he had his feet on the dashboard. Cerise felt her heart jump slightly when she noticed he didn't have a shirt on. "Brocko! W...where are we?"

Brocko looked a little disappointed. "You don't remember? When the Open House went south, Romulus decided that we would all spend the night in the woods. I gave you and your sister a ride out here, but you fell asleep. Your sister and I stayed with you, but she left a little while ago,"

Now that he mentioned all this, the memories came flooding back: she'd kept reminding Ramona that they needed to call their father, but Ramona wasn't listening. During the car ride, Cerise's eyes began to get heavy with the need for sleep. When she finally gave in, she heard Ramona say, "I'm gonna call our dad. He can't know where we really are- he'll freak out," just before drifting off.

Before Cerise could panic about disobeying her father, Brocko asked, "You hungry?"

"Uh..." Cerise shook herself, smoothing her hair back. "Y-yeah,"

Brocko smiled at her, getting up. "This way! The other wolves are out at the campsite, and the food's probably here by now," Cerise watched as he slipped a shirt over his head and adjusted it around himself, and she checked to make sure she had appropriate clothing on before following after him.

But when they arrived at the campsite (which was just a few picnic tables, a charred grill, and an old playground), they discovered that the food actually hadn't arrived yet.

"Yeah, Dougey's supposed to bring it, and he's running late," explained Romulus as he scraped a blackened substance off of the grill. "In the meantime, we can wait. Clawd really wants to play kickball, so we'll probably do that at some point,"

Brocko seemed a bit annoyed at this, but he didn't argue. As he picked up a long stick and started using it to draw in the dirt, Cerise could hear someone calling her name.

"Over here!" called Ramona from the old swing set, standing on the seat while rocking back and forth.

"Sit down," Clawdeen scolded Ramona, frowning. "That's not how you use a swing,"

As Cerise approached, Ramona jumped down. "You're finally awake! You were asleep on your feet last night, I swear,"

Cerise got straight to the point. "Ramona, what did you tell dad?"

Ramona's face fell. "Oh...you were awake for that, huh?" when Cerise nodded, Ramona sighed. "I said we were staying with some friends, that's all. He was half-asleep when I called, so it's not like he'll remember,"

"Besides," Clawdeen spoke up. "He can't keep you under his paw forever. How old are you two? Seventeen? Sixteen?"

"We're both seventeen," Cerise answered. She rocked back and forth on her heels, and she remembered the dream she'd had. "Hey, I had weird dream last night,"

Ramona grimaced. "Oh, no. It wasn't the naked dream, was it?"

"No, no!" assured Cerise. "It was...it was one I'd never had before. There were two wolves battling, and one of them was Isengrim,"

Clawdeen looked confused. "Who's that?"

"The first Big Bad Wolf," Ramona explained. "He's a...relative of ours. What happened then?"

Cerise thought hard. "Well...then, the other wolf, Lupine, saw something behind Isengrim's back and yelled,"

"What did she yell?" Clawdeen wanted to know.

"I think it was..." Cerise tried to remember exactly how Lupine pronounced it. "Iolanthe,"

Ramona only raised an eyebrow, but Clawdeen's mouth fell open in surprise. "Iolanthe?" she asked after a few seconds, bewildered. "You mean...the sorceress, Iolanthe?"

Cerise shrugged. "I...I don't know. Sorceress? I've never heard of her,"

Before they could discuss the matter any further, they heard Clawd calling, "Hey! The food's here! Come get it!"

Dougey got out of his car, carrying a cooler and laying it in the grass. Brocko stared at the cooler in surprise. "How much food did you even buy?"

"I bought enough," was the answer. "And don't you dare complain- none of it was cheap," Dougey opened up the cooler and asked, "Can someone start up the grill?"

"Howldon's on it!" Clawd called back, and then he turned to his younger brother. "You know what to do, right?"

Howldon tilted his head, a can of lighter fluid clutched in his hand. "How much do I put in?"

"Uh," Clawd tried to think. "Like, a lot,"

Howldon made a sort of 'eh' noise and then began to pour a large amount of lighter fluid on the rill. Clawd gasped in horror and wrestled the can away from him. "No, no! Not that much!"

Pretty soon, the wolves sat in the grass and enjoyed small cheeseburger sliders. As Cerise took a bite out of hers, she listened to Clawdeen explain who Iolanthe was.

"She's basically a sorceress who was all anti-war, hundreds of years ago," Clawdeen went on as she reached for a bottle of mustard. "She tried to stop one of the vampire wars from happening but failed. No one heard from her after that,"

Ramona thought this over as she sipped on a root-beer. "Weird. I wonder why you were dreaming about her, Cerise,"

As Cerise reached over and dug around in the cooler for a drink, Brocko came to join her. "You know," he began, laying his paper plate in the grass. "You never said 'no',"

"Hm?" Cerise looked up. "No to what?"

"Going to the steakhouse,"

Cerise pulled her hood shyly, taking a sip of lemonade. "O-oh! Well..."

"The answer is no," a stern voice said, and Cerise's face fell.

Badwolf stood above her, arms crossed and stone-faced. "Cerise, Ramona, we're going home,"

Ramona stood up, shocked. "Dad! H-how did you find us!?"

"Doesn't matter," Badwolf articulated, gesturing to the woods. "Your mother's over there. Go, now,"

Ramona huffed, waving goodbye to the other wolves and picking up her burger and root beer. Yet Cerise stayed completely still, just staring at her father in awe. "Why are you doing this, dad?"

"Now!" snapped Badwolf, clenching his fist. Cerise was up in a flash, nervously bidding goodbye to Brocko and following her sister.

Badwolf watched them leave, and then he turned to the other wolves. "Listen, you," he growled, his voice low. "I don't want you near my daughters today, tomorrow, or any other day of the week!"

"Oh, yeah?" asked Howldon smugly, standing up. "Well, how about yesterday? Straight up fact!"

Clawdeen pulled her brother down to the grass. "Shut up, you numbskull!" she hissed at him. "Look, sir, we don't want any trouble,"

"And neither do I," Badwolf responded, his voice calm all of the sudden. "So, please- stay away from my girls. I don't trust any of you," With that, he left.

In the woods, Cerise vented her frustrations to her mother as they walked home. "Why does he think he can just tell us how to live our lives!?" Cerise ranted, swiping at nothing with her nails. "We're not children anymore! We have our own lives!"

Red stopped walking and turned to her daughter, an incredible sadness on her face. "Cerise, honey, your father just loves you too much. He's had a bad history with others of his kind,"

Ramona snorted. "Why does that matter? He needs to get over it,"

Red winced a little at that comment. "Ramona, please don't tell him that. He had a rough start in life, let's leave it there,"

Badwolf caught up to his family, shifting into his human form and sighing. "I'm sorry, girls. What I did was in your best interest, trust me,"

Cerise did not answer, and she only dug her hands into her pockets, the tears stinging her eyes. Badwolf noticed the tears and put an arm around her, pulling her close to him and kissing her forehead.

Whoo, I'm back! Sorry, this was later than normal. I've just been super busy with all my classes and stuff. But, the last class I was supposed to have today got canceled, so I'm home early!

As always, feedback is welcome, and so are any questions, comments or theories you may have!