"This is Vanya Hargreeves, please leave a message & I'll get back to as soon as I can"

BEEP

"Hey Miss H! It's Milton, is Theo there? We're at scho—AHHHH! NO! YOU ELVEN FUCK! HELGA! HELP! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! HELGA—!"

Never let it be said that these death elves—"Mogadorians!"— sit around on their arses. Milton thought as his feet pounded against the linoleum school floor behind Helga. The last few minutes had completely flipped his world on its head, not only was Helga an alien, but Theodore—"I'm human, you dumbass!"—was some kind of weird hybrid of the two—he was like something out of X-Men; which y'know is cool on paper, but in real life? Not so much. Because where there was good aliens, there was also bad aliens—and these ones? Bad, very bad!

Milton panted harshly as sweat beaded on his brow and fogged up his glasses, making it harder to see. At some point, Helga had thrust an alien-looking gun into his hands, muttering something about protection, and it was only through years of video gaming that led him to actually figure out how it worked.

ROOOOAAAAR!

He couldn't help the guilt that welled up inside him at the fact that they had abandoned Theodore in their escape attempt; it gnawed at his insides like a rabid wolf and pulled at his thoughts like one of Miss Clearwater's brain teasers. But if that roar is anything to go by…His brain supplied, playing Devil's advocate. Theo can get himself out anything! His mind reasoned, And anyway, he was made of blue crystal! The bullets just bounced right off of hm! He'll be fine!

RAAAAAAH!

The following cry was full of pain and served to shatter his earlier thoughts; especially when Helga spared a concerned look over her shoulder at the noise, her brows furrowed and lips pursed. A small seed of jealously wormed its way into his heart when he noticed she wasn't even sweating, but he quickly felt bad when he realised she hadn't been surprised at the turn of events, likely expecting this would happen or having done so before. Racing down the dimly lit tunnel between the gender-specified locker rooms the end soon came in sight; it was almost too good to be true that the pair hadn't encountered anyone else in their escape attempt. Famous last words.

"Helga—! Look—" Milton gasped as the pair rounded a corner, just in time for the leading blonde to crash straight into the person emerging from the shadows that encompassed the passageway to the right. "—Out"

"Ack!" Helga cried as the pair went down; she quickly pushed herself off the small woman, crouching low like a tiger ready to pounce. Immediately putting on the breaks and pointing the alien firearm at the pair pinned to the floor, the blonde boy remained tense until the new person was revealed. Confusion followed soon after.

"Miss H?" Milton furrowed his brows in confusion as he lowered the gun. "What are you doing here?"

"You shouldn't be here" Helga narrowed her eyes, likely concerned that she was in league with elvish monsters and the soldiers back in the cafeteria.

"You called me, remember?" Vanya replied as she eyed the gun in his hands, brushing herself off as both girls rose to their feet. "Is something the matter? What's going on? Where's Teddy?"

"Uh…" Milton blinked, tightening his grip on the alien firearm in his hands as Helga turned her narrowed gaze to their friend's mother. Whatever she had been looking for, she didn't seem to have found because no sooner had she finished inspecting the timid woman, did she shake her head in dismissal and motion for them to continue on. That was until another figure emerged from the shadows, this one much taller than Vanya.

"HALT!" The guttural voice and matching firearm in their hands was the first clue that this was not one of their allies; of course that wasn't what caused Milton to fire. If he was totally honest, it had been completely on instinct from years of playing Call of Duty, that led him to pull the trigger.

"Holy shit!" Milton exclaimed, quickly slinging the barrel towards the new person and squeezing the trigger. Piercing through the opening between the two women, the red laser-like bullet hit its mark with deadly accuracy and turned the alien to blackened ash.

Whelp, that's gonna give me nightmares…That better not have been Theo! He mused as both Vanya & Helga turned to him with wide eyes—one full of surprise, the other in shock. "I play a lot of video games" He admitted with a shrug, still not quite comprehending what had just happened.

"Huh" Helga blinked.

"Y'know that wasn't me, right?" Not two seconds later, Theodore emerged from the same set of shadows and out into the dimly lit hallway, causing the bespectacled teen's shoulders to slump in relief. Oh thank God! It was only when he stood highlighted by the field's spotlights that Milton saw that his friend appeared to be wearing a pair of red and white the striped lycra pants he remembered members of the drama club wearing during their presentation at the beginning of the year.

It was odd seeing his friend without his usual assortment of accessories. Gone was the leather cuff from around his wrist, which allowed Milton to glimpse four little numbers tattooed there. Gone was the dirty undershirt that usually hung off his frame, giving everyone a full view of the (odd) scarring on his back and arms. Theodore was usually a quiet and withdrawn fellow, and right now, Milton couldn't help but feel like he didn't know this person.

"Did you seriously stop for a wardrobe change?" Milton joked, coming forward to wrap his best friend in a hug as he tried to hide what he was really thinking. Even if he didn't know this Theodore, he was still his friend, and he'd be damned if all those years of friendship were thrown away. He tried not to think about the feeling of the scars beneath his fingers.

"Would you prefer if I was running around buck naked?" Theodore fired back as he returned the hug; melting slightly into the embrace.

"I'm sure Helga wouldn't mind"

"Dude!" Parting from the hug, both boys were soon encompassed by the worrying arms of Vanya Hargreeves as she inspected them for any injuries. "Mama?" Theodore asked she turned his head this way and that, "What are you doing here?"

"Eh…that might be my fault" Milton replied bashfully before the woman could reply.

"What?"

"You wouldn't answer your phone!"

"So you called home"

"Yep"

"Alright" Helga clapped her hands, garnering their attention. "This is all well and good, but we've still gotta get outta here"

"Right" Theodore nodded, stepping out of his mother's grasp and turning to his fellow alien. "Let's go"

Racing side-by-side with Helga, they Loric-Human Garde led the way to their freedom, intent on making it out before the Mogadorians found them. Worry and fear flooded through Theodore as they ran, not just for the Garde children (Loric & Human alike) but for his mother and Milton as well. He had no idea what to do, let alone what would happen to them all, for now they just had to roll with the punches. No sooner had the odd quartet burst out onto the field, were they met with rapid gunfire. The first volley appeared to be warning shots as they tore up the grassy ground at their feet, they wouldn't be so lucky with the rest.

"SHIT!" Helga slung an arm out towards Mama's face just in time to telekinetically direct a bullet away from her face and towards the ground off to the side.

"GET BACK TO THE TUNNEL!" Theodore threw over his shoulder to an ashen-faced Milton as the trio of Mogadorians in front of them continued their assault.

"GOT IT!" Milton replied as he raced back towards the school, grabbing Mama's wrist as he did so. Although Theodore could see the unbridled worry written across her features as they fled, he knew that whatever today's outcome was, things would never be the same as before.

With the two humans safely at their back, the two Garde members began their counter-attack. As loralite sprouted from his flesh once more, Helga plucked a loralite gun seemingly from thin air and fired on the Mogs with hellish accuracy. The Mogadorians fired on them mercilessly as they approached; a swipe of Helga's free hand sent one of them flying towards a tree lining the back fence where the sound of breaking bones and squelching flesh echoed through the dark night. One down, two to go. Theodore pounced on the next Mogadorian with blue claws and crystallised fangs as he tore through their jugular with his blunt teeth like a starving animal. Instantaneously, ash landed on his tongue and blood dripped down his lips as the alien met the touch of loralite and died. Two down, one to go.

The last Mogadorian appeared to be the one to watch out for. He was dressed in black—as all Mogs were—with elvish features defined by tribal tattoos and fish-like gills. The only pop of colour was the Ragnor-Ra Rehab Centre patch that was stitched to the shoulder of his leather jacket. Dressed to the nines in bandoliers of pulsing red ammunition lining his chest and the hilts of two loralite daggers poking out from the holsters strapped to his thighs. There was this air of danger about him, and it set Theodore on edge.

"CHIMAERA!" Loren suddenly yelled in his head so loud that it made Theodore flinch. It was only through years of long-forgotten muscle memory and loralite-assisted control that let the teen duck out of the way of the oncoming attack. Theodore sucked in hissed a breath through his teeth as loralite encased his body once more, this time allowing Loren to fuel his animalistic rage and cloud his mind from its usual judgement. Encased in as much loralite as he could manage, Theodore was now about the size of a tractor; certainly smaller than the chimaera but still large enough to take it on without dying from a single hit.

Theodore's brain went blank as the next few moments passed in a blur of flaying limbs and gnashing teeth. The air filled with animalistic yowls, howls and roars as they fought with punches, scratches and chomps that were dished out on either side. Neither side gave the other enough ground to push back; no openings, no mercy. This was life or death and on some basic instinctual level they both knew it. It was only through a lucky break that allowed Theodore to fling the chimaera off of his and towards the free-standing fold-away bleachers on the side of the field. Painful yowls escaped from the chimaera as Theodore struck while it was down; latching his crystallised jaw around the creature's throat, digging in as deep as he could go before shaking his head from side to side, quite literally shaking the life out of it.

Much like the Mogadorians, the chimaera burst into blackened ash which stained his mouth and it was then—and only then—that he dropped the creature from his mouth, triumph and pride surged through the Loren-Theodore hybrid as they gagged at the amount of ash on his tongue from their latest kill. Triumph that soon disappeared however, when he spared a glance towards Helga to see how she was faring. With adrenaline (and loralite) still pumping through his system, Theodore pounced again, this time wrenching the blonde out of the alien's grip.

As the two flew back and away from the Mogadorian, Helga sent a shot of lumen towards the creature with a fierce yell on her lips. In turn, as fierce heat beat against their backs from the explosion of ammunition layered over the Mog, Theodore—blue & crystallised—wrapped Helga in a hug, praying that the loralite would be enough to shelter them from the shockwave. It was all Theodore could do to protect them against the powerful explosion that rocked the school and turned everything around them to smelting blackened ash.