Urbana was sitting in the living room with Morticia, Gomez, Fester, and Grandmama watching the news with them. The news anchor was talking about last week's attack in New York's Central Park. About how much damage was done and the terrifying reveal of how humans aren't alone on this earth anymore, but they weren't talking about any aliens, instead they showed blurry photos and relatively clear videos of Goliath and his clan helping citizens to safety with Jake in his dragon from. They showed photos and videos of Abe and Liz and of Jim fighting the Arcane Order that Nari told them about and is presently hiding from. Currently, field reporters were interviewing citizens in New York and asking them how they feel about all this. One guy they watched being interviewed was wearing a camo-baseball hat and he had a gun slung over his shoulder as he talked about needing to protect his family from a zombie apocalypse.
As they watched, Urbana saw Lurch beckoning her over. Urbana got up and went towards him.
"It's looking really bad on tv Lurch. Every day it seems more people are becoming panicked," Urbana informed him.
Lurch placed a finger over his lips, asking her to stay silent.
Urbana gave him a questioning look.
Lurch then motioned for her to follow him.
Urbana followed him all the way to his room and he indicated for her to close it behind her.
Lurch's room is one of the most immaculate rooms in the mansion, but it was filled to the brim with old 1930's stuff. His furniture was Art Deco and he had posters of black and white photos of celebrities that Urbana didn't recognize. There was an old-fashioned record player in one corner of his room with a hanging bookcase full of vinal discs. Urbana looked around his room while he rummaged through his nightstand draw. Soon Lurch pulled out a ring box, then showed her an engagement ring inside made with an emerald set-in silver.
Urbana gasped, then squeed in delight, then said, "You're going to propose to my Aunt! That's amazing. I'm so excited for you. When did you decided that you felt like you wanted to marry her?"
Lurch told her about how he loved Jane's smile and how he loved her voice and how she makes him feel beautiful when he's always felt very much like an ugly duckling.
"Oh. I had no idea you ever had those kinds of feelings Lurch… Uh, I love how your bow tie matches your eyes," Urbana said.
Lurch closed the ring box and patted Urbana on her head with a tender smile on his face.
"Oooooh! We've got to plan the perfect place for you to propose to her for… When exactly are you planning on proposing?" Urban asked.
Lurch told her he was planning on asking her during the family reunion.
"We've got so much time," Urbana said as she clapped her hands together excitedly, then she said, "Thanks for letting me in on the secret. I needed some good news in my life."
Lurch gave her a thumbs up, then he placed the ring box back into his nightstand.
# # #
High school got out for the weekend and Urbana decided to pick up Pugsley and Wednesday from school so they could hang out. The three of them were talking about their respective homework that they were going to have to do while driving around town when they all spotted the mayor of Westfield addressing a rather angry crowd in front of the mayor's office. A singular one-story building near the middle of the town. Urbana rolled down her window to listen.
"We don't want a curfew!"
"What happened in New York could have been fake!"
"What happened in New York doesn't affect us!"
"This is suppression!"
Urbana thought about how this reminded her of her American History classes.
The mayor addressed the crowd using a megaphone as she said, "Everyone please. This is only temporary. We have to think about the safety of our children and think about each other's safety. Those monsters that we saw on the news could show up at any time to do what they've done to the citizens of New York. If half of you had actually come to the town meeting, you would all known that we are also creating a voluntary group of night patrols. I brought the sign-up sheet with me if any of you are interested."
Urbana pulled out her phone and called Jim and told him what was up. After she hung up on Jim, Urbana was going to apologize to Wednesday and Pugsley for not being able to hang out outside the house longer when she noticed that neither one of them where in the back of her car. She looked back out her window to only see a passing image of Pugsley's shirt disappearing into the crowd. Urbana quickly placed her car in park and got out of her car to go catch them before they did something to hurt themselves.
"Everyone please listen!" Wednesday called out to the crowd.
Urbana found Pugsley and Wednesday standing in front of the crowd beside the mayor.
Oh boy, Urbana thought as she pushed her way through the crowd.
"We know these are scary times," Wednesday said, "but we can't fall into the trap that these people, these new different people are only monsters."
The crowd started to heckle Wednesday, telling the mayor to get the two rich goth kids off the stage. Urbana managed to get in front of the crowd at the same time she saw the mayor's secretary start to put his hands on Pugsley and Wednesday. Urbana put her hands on the secretary's shoulder and with her best glare, told him to let go of them. He immediately did so. Then Urbana stood behind Wednesday and Pugsley, legs apart, back straight, arms crossed over chest, and scowl of maximum intensity on her face. Half the town knew Urbana as the entertainer at The Witching Hour, but the other half of the town knew her very well as the bouncer who takes no shit from you at The Witching Hour. Pugsley and Wednesday looked at her. She gave the two teenagers a reassuring smile, then continued to stare down the crowd.
"I know each and everyone of you," Pugsley said, "Mr. and Mrs. Langley who owns the Wheelbarrel. Mrs. and Mrs. Hart who owns The Witching Hour. All of the teachers who work at Westfield Grade School and High School. Mr. Gillicuddy who own's the BookShop next to the Library, and so on. All of you have your own oddities and strangeness that any outsider could call monstrous, but each and every one of you are still people. People who deserve patience and understanding."
"Just like these "monsters" deserve your patience and understanding," Wednesday added, "We're entering into something new, that's frightening and mysterious, but together, together we can face it all. We can face it all like the proud, strong, kind, community that our family has cared about for generations."
"We can do it! Right!?" Pugsley cheered.
Mrs. Dede Hart, Urbana's employer, turned her attention to the mayor and said, "I'd like to sign up for the voluntary night patrols."
More people echoed the woman's statement.
The mayor handed out her clipboard to the crowd. A few people stuck around to ask how long exactly the curfew would last while the rest of the crowd calmly dispersed.
Urbana put her hand's on Wednesday's and Pugsley's shoulders and said, "Hey. Well done you two. Now let's go home."
The three of them got back into Urbana's car and they drove home and the three of them did their homework together.
# # #
It was Urbana's turn to babysit Raven and Red and it was a school day for her, so she had to take them with her. Urbana was struggling to buckle up the twins into their car seats when she heard a car coming up the driveway. Urbana didn't bother to look as she was focusing on the struggling babies. She managed to buckle in Red, who was in the process of trying to take his shoes off, when an unwanted synthetic voice greeted her.
Urbana sighed, looked over her shoulder at the red and yellow flame pained mustang car, then she turned her attention back to Raven and said, "What do you want Rodimus? I already explained to Ratchet and First Aid and Optimus why I can't dilute pure Dark Energon and I'd rather not talk to you before I go to school. I like having a positive mind set on my way there."
"Okay. Cool. You still haven't warmed up to me. That's fine. That's fine," then he mumbled, "Even though I am the coolest Autobot out of our group."
"That's debatable," Urbana said as she finally managed to buckle in Raven. While she was forcing Red's shoes back onto his feet, Urbana said, "Now tell me what you want or just go away already."
"Okay. So I was thinking, Ratchet is having a hard time completing the synthetic Energon, and you can talk to the dead, so I was thinking that maybe you could summon our ancestors and ask them to tell you the formula so you can tell us," Rodimus said.
Urbana sighed a painful sigh as she finally put Red's shoes back on his feet. Then she looked at Rodimus and said, "There are several different reasons why your plan has a miniscule to no chance of actually working. One major reason it won't work is because I'm not Cybertronian, being from the same planet, no matter how different you are, still very much matters. Like let me ask, and be real here, do you think, or do you know that your ancestors are xenophobic? Did they have problems with organics like myself?"
Rodimus's tires shifted from side to side as he thought, then he said, "Most likely considering not all Autobots care about organics and Decepticons especially don't care about anyone other than their own factions."
"Then there's the fact that you think I can just summon any dead people, but I can't," Urbana said, "To summon someone they have to of had some kind of close relationship with you and rituals from your home planet are important too… Do you guys have any kind of religious or spiritual way of speaking with your dead?"
"I mean, we do and did," Rodimus said, "I was never much of a religious bot myself, and I don't think anyone in our team is religious either…"
"So you want a complete stranger to connect with a weird little organic and have them tell their secrets to them just so they can then turn around and tell their secrets to the next bot that asks them to tell them, just to advance some kind of dumb war," Urbana said.
"This war isn't dumb," Rodimus said, "We're trying to do good and protect people from Decepticon rule."
"Yah, well, the dead don't care, Rodimus. The dead only care about themselves and the people who cared enough about them in their lives to remember and honor their memory," Urbana said, "And I bet a thousand dollars that they don't want anyone at all to know how to make synthetic Energon."
"Why would the Ancients not want us to know how to make our own Energon," Rodimus asked, "Energon is something that every bot needs and has a right to."
"You guys said that one of the reasons why the war on your planet happened was because of a shortage of Energon, right?"
"Right," he said.
"And those capsules of items and information that you guys have found half of, that were shot out into space, from your planet, to avoid Decepticons from using or having; one of those capsules was the formula for synthetic Energon, right?"
"Right? Urbana where are you going with this?" Rodimus asked.
"Why in the world, wouldn't your Ancients or your government, or someone in power use that knowledge to immediately relieve the populous of that burden. Why did it take a fucking war for you guys to finally have any semblance of the formula to begin with?" Urbana asked.
Rodimus was stunned into silence as Urbana gave the twins one more look-over before closing the back door of her car on them. Urbana felt her phone starting to ring and when she took it out of her pocket, she saw that it was Jazz.
Before picking up her phone, Urbana said to Rodimus, "Stay safe on your drive back home. Though, I don't know why you didn't just Ground Bridge your way here."
Urbana got into her car and picked up her phone. Rodimus watched her drive off while Urbana was listening to Jazz tell her that the President has publicly acknowledging the P.B.R.D. and was in the middle of a speech about what they're going to do about what happened in New York.
# # #
Urbana, Morticia, Grandmama, Cactus Steven, and Pugsley were in New Trollmarket helping Blinky and the community volunteers, plant their underground garden.
"Put those two together," Grandmama instructed two random trolls, "They'll help each other grow."
Grandmama caught Cactus Steven about to pour some potting soil into the wrong spot and she told him, "Oh! Not over here Sweetie. This is where we're going to plant the Pleurocarpous. I want you to pour the soil in this corner where we're going to plant Leucocoprinus birnbaumii over there."
Cactus Steven nodded his spiney head and walked over to where Grandmama had directed him. Pugsley and Morticia then started spreading out the soil that he was pouring.
Urbana was spreading out moss onto some dead logs when Jim came over to have a look at the progress.
"It looks good," he said, "And Grandmama said a lot of these plants can be used in potions, right?"
"Yep. How have you been?" Urbana asked.
"Tired. Doing night patrols on the surface as gotten a lot harder now that the town's doing their own night patrols," Jim said.
"Then maybe you should let us surface dwellers deal with surface night stuff on our own for a while. It'll give you more time to focus on studying what Merlin gave you and Claire. Like I'm one hundred percent sure that, that man that you fought that night was the Green Knight from the stories," Urbana said.
"But the Green Knight's a fairy in the stories," Jim said, "and if the Arcane Order is magically powerful enough to control a fairy then I'm pretty sure even Merlin won't have a chance against them, for long at least."
"I guess we just have to figure out what they want and then take measures to prevent it," Urbana pondered aloud.
"We already are," Jim said, "Nari told us that they need her help to open the Genesis Seals, which they have, so we'll need to plan some sort of attack to take them back… We're just not sure how to go about it just yet."
"Oh, lovely… Why is it bad to open the Genesis Seals?" Urbana asked.
Jim explained to her how the Genesis Seals are what help keep the wilder and more dangerous aspects of magic in check and how if they are unsealed then the world, as it is, will be destroyed by its own unrestrained magic.
"I wonder if that's why Rasputin is working with them, cause Hellboy has the key to unleash his own Armageddon… Ha!" Urbana laughed in realization.
"What! What is it?" Jim asked.
Laughing as she talked, Urbana said, "Hellboy's Arm is the key, he can unlock Armageddon! Get it? Armageddon! Ha, ha, ha! I just realized a fantastic coincidence."
Jim gave her a look like he couldn't believe that he was younger that her.
"Oh, shut up, it's funny. I'm going to text Danny, Hellboy and Scarlet the joke," Urbana said as she took out her phone to do just that.
# # #
Urbana was up late in her bed after having done her homework and having drawn a few comic pages for her online comic. She was currently texting Scarlet.
Urbana: Where r u?
Scarlet: I'm in the States. Back from Port of Menteith in Scotland. A particularly nasty kelpie was killing off the locals and tourists at Lake of Menteith.
Urbana: Did you kill it, or did you capture it for it to go through judgement?
Scarlet: We managed to capture her and keep her in her humanoid form. She'll be getting a trial, weather she likes it or not.
Scarlet: Did you hear about the news?
Urbana: Yah. How do you feel about that?
Scarlet: It feels weird. Like every one of us in the B.P.R.D. has a target on their back now, but I also feel kind of relieved. We don't have to hide anymore. The higher-ups even sent me an Email telling me that I don't have to stay in my human disguise anymore.
Scarlet: I don't know how good it'll be for us. People like us have been hiding for a long time and humans have been trying to ignore anything strange about this world since people like us have been hiding.
Urbana: I'm scared too and I'm sure this will be difficult, but I believe people will become more accepting once the shock is over with.
Scarlet: That's going to take a couple of years if not longer. We may not have that kind of time.
Urbana: Maybe not, but I'm still going to hope.
Scarlet: Okay. Well, it's time for me to board my ride to HQ. Good night. I love you.
Urbana stared at the last sentence. Hesitant to write anything back.
Urbana: Good night. I appreciate your love.
Urbana then quickly slammed her phone, screen down, onto her nightstand then buried her face into her Crying Spoon body pillow.
# # #
The sun had set an hour ago, and Urbana was helping Grandmama and Broadway set up the table in the kitchen while Gomez and Angela were feeding Hazel, Raven, and Red. Morticia was sitting beside Gomez while she was on the phone, having a conference call with Maddie and Hellboy; the three of them talking about their day and how much everything has changed in just a few weeks. Fester was out doing night patrol with his group that he was assigned to, and Lurch was in the living room with Wednesday and Pugsley, helping them with their homework.
Once Urbana had finished setting up the table, she felt her phone ring in her pocket. She took out her phone to see that Leo was calling her. Before picking up, Urbana walked out of the kitchen to stand in the entrance hallway.
"Hey, haven't heard from you guys in forever. Where have you guys been?" Urbana asked.
"Never mind that. Have you seen the news?" Leo asked.
"You're going to have to be a bit more specific," she said.
"Do you have NY News on your channels," Leo asked, sounding frustrated.
"I believe we do," Urbana said as she made her way into the living room to turn on the tv.
Urbana flipped through the channels until she came upon the NY News Channel. They were recording live and were filming a man in front of a fancy tech like office building called Xanatos Tech. The man that was being filmed had long brown hair in a low ponytail and he was wearing a very fancy black suit. However, neither of these things weren't as eye catching as seeing the giant, banged up looking, steel-blue and grey colored robot with an orange face and hands, with his left eye missing.
"Oh my God," Urbana said as she, Lurch, Pugsley, and Wednesday watched the news.
"Is that a robot, like Miss Arcee," Pugsley asked.
"Leo, what's going on," Urbana asked into her phone.
"Look, we're as confused about it as you, but we're pretty sure that the Foot resurrected Shredder by implanting him into that alien bot on tv because he spoke to the cameras not too long ago," Leo said.
"Wait. You guys killed somebody," Urbana asked.
"Yes… It was a bad situation," Leo said, his voice strained from the bad memories, "but what happened while we were gone? We just got back from our yearly three-week long wilderness survival training to find New York completely topsy-turvy and a robot Shredder saying he was built to protect New York from evil doers."
Urbana heard Don yell through the phone, "And the Foot have been stealing from Xanatos Tech more than any tech company in New York so it's double suspicious that the voice of Shredder is coming from that bot that Xanatos says he designed himself to help protect the people."
Urbana filled Leo in on what happened while they were gone. The news channel switched over to talking to New York's Mayor and Police Chief, Captain Fanzone.
"I don't know how to feel about the possibility of not having to hide anymore," Leo said.
Urbana heard Mikey yell through the phone, "Are you kidding! It would be amazing!"
"What is your guy's history with the Foot and this Shredder guy anyways," Urbana asked.
The answer that Urbana got wasn't what she thought it would be. Leo explained to her how Master Splinter and The Shredder use to date each other, but The Shredder was an abusive boyfriend to Master Splinter and it took the rat several years to finally leave him for the turtle's mother. The boy's mother was part of a long-standing ninja clan called the Hamato Clan. Their mother and her clan helped teach him to physically and mentally defend himself against the Shredder, who didn't take kindly to the act of Master Splinter leaving him. In retaliation, The Shredder then joined the Foot Clan, a well-known rival to the Hamato Clan, and rose in the ranks before finally becoming the leader of the Foot Clan and organizing a surprise attacking on the Hamato Clan, killing everyone but Master Splinter and the four of them. Forcing the five of them to flee to America.
"That's really fucked up," Urbana said.
"Yes. Sensei thought it was best to not mince words on the matter when we were old enough to ask questions about our mother," Leo said.
"So wait. How old were you guys when you got mutated?" Urbana asked.
"Master Splinter said that we were two years old when the five of us became mutated," Leo said, "Me and Mikey don't remember ever being human, but Don and Raph say that they remember having more than three fingers and toes."
Grandmama and Broadway called out, telling everyone that dinner was ready.
"I'll call up the Autobots later and I'll tell them what you told me about that bot being Shredder. I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out," Urbana said.
"Thank you. See you around," Leo said.
"Bye," Urbana said, then they hung up on each other.
# # #
It was one of the first cold nights of August as Urbana was welcoming in everyone that was able to make it to the support group meeting.
Lily, the swamp-fish teenager, who lives in the Black Lake that's on the Addams family property appeared first, with a deerskin shoulder bag hanging from her shoulder.
"Hey. You're wearing the necklace Dad gave you," Lily said, sluggishly.
"I do wear it sometimes. It is pretty," Urbana said, then added, "You sound tired. Getting close to time for you and your family to hibernate?"
"No. I've just been staying up later than usual gathering items to make jewelry with Dad. I even brought some to sell this time after the meeting," Lily said.
"Cool. Can't wait to see it," Urbana said as she gestured to the snack table.
The next person to show up was Sabrina, Wednesday and Pugsley's first cousin once removed, and Salem the man cursed to be a black cat.
"It's good to see you two again," Urbana said, then asked, "How are you guys holding up?"
"I'm sad I can't freak out drunkards in the street anymore by talking to them," Salem said, "Now I don't know what to do with my nights."
"I'm a bit hopeful," Sabrina said, "I want the world to know about us. It's always so hard hiding magic and creatures like us and I hope we can be accepted."
"That depends on what will happen next," Urbana said as she offered a seat to the two of them.
The next people to show up was Jim, Claire, Toby, and Steve, along with a new friend of theirs. The new guy looked Latino with shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes, and light brown skin. He looked about sixteen or seventeen years old, the youngest of his peers within the Trollhunter group of kids. He was wearing blue jeans and a cute graphic shirt that said, "I am an Alien", with a little green Martian Man sitting in the little A-hole of the word alien.
Urbana greeted them inside and was about to ask Jim if he had any trouble getting here, when the new kid grabbed her by the shoulders and said, "Steve told me that you can talk to the dead! Can you see Mama and Papa?"
Urbana turned to Steve and glared at him, saying, "Steve! What the heck!"
Rubbing the back of his neck, Steve said, "I know. I know. It's just. Their parent's death anniversary was last week, and they've been dead for two years and Aja and Krel just miss them so much."
Urbana sighed while she embraced the teenager, "No. I don't see your parents. I'm sorry you lost them. We can talk more after the support group meeting is over. Okay?"
Krel hugged her back, then nodded.
"Now, go drown your sorrows with food," Urbana said as she directed the alien boy in disguise to the snack table where Pugsley and Sabrina were talking to each other.
Soon the Manhattan Clan showed up with Claw in their group along with Jake, Haley, Spud, Trixie, Melody, and Rose. It was the Turtle boy's turn to stay in New York to keep an eye on things and everyone was enjoying being able to see each other and talk with each other normally. Once they settled down, Steven, Amethyst, Lapis, and Peridot appeared, with the four of them splitting up to catch up with people they don't get to talk with often.
The final people to show up were Miko, Raf, Jack, and Sari.
"Thank you for coming you four," Urbana said as she let them in.
"Are you kidding! I didn't want to miss this for anything," Miko said, then she saw Claw and gasped, then immediately went up to the giant tiger man. She started chatting Claw's ears off with her bullet speed questions.
Urbana quickly went over to Claw's rescue and covered Miko's mouth.
"Woah. Easy, Sister," Urbana said as Claw put his clawed hands on her shoulders and hid his massive body behind her, "You've got to slow down. Claw here is selectively mute. You need to speak softly, calmly, and give him yes or no questions for him to interact with you."
"Ah, what?! Boo!" Miko said after removing Urbana's hand from her mouth.
In response Urbana karate chopped Miko on the head and said, "Don't be rude. Let me introduce you to someone else who's a little bit more your speed. Melody! Come over here!"
The blond, white girl, with a giddy smile on her face skipped on over to the three of them.
"Miko. Melody. Melody. Miko," Urbana introduce the two of them together, then said, "Miko here is a Wreaker. And Melody helps protect magical beings with her twin sister."
"Wow. Really," Miko asked.
"Yah. It's hard but I love it. What's a Wreaker?" Melody asked.
"Oh, I'm so happy you asked," Miko said.
Soon the two teenage girls were chatting with each other at breakneck speeds, both of them trying to get in as much conversation to each other as possible.
Urbana then turned her attention to the giant tiger man.
"Hey. Are you okay?"
Claw nodded his head yes.
"Do you need any more help," she asked.
He shook his head no.
"Alright then. Have fun listening in on everyone's conversations," Urbana said as she patted his clawed hand, "I've got some more work to do."
He let go of her shoulders and Urbana went over to Raf, Sari, and Jack.
"Sari. Raf. I know the perfect people for you two to talk to," Urbana said as she grabbed the two of them by their hands. Urbana then brought them over to Steven and Peridot.
"Urbana," Steven greeted happily, "I'm glad you're doing well. How's therapy treating you?"
"It's a little weird, but I think it's going well," she said as she let go of Raf and Sari.
Steven nodded his head in understanding, remembering what his first few weeks in therapy were like for him.
"Steven, I'd like you to meet, Sari. She's part human part cybertronian, like how you're part gem and part human," Urbana said.
"What's a cybertronian," Steven asked.
"A race of living machines, capable of being able to transform into vehicles, animals, and other things like a giant USB Stick," Sari said, then asked, "What's a gem?"
"A race of intelligent rocks with solid hologram bodies, capable of melding our bodies together called fusion, manifesting two people's relationship into a new person," Steven said.
"That's really cool and you can do that," Sari asked.
"Yah," Steven said, "Can you do any transformation's?"
Sari took a deep breath, then a jet pack unfolded from her back.
Starry eyed, Steven said, "That is so cool!"
While those two talked Urbana introduced Raf to Peridot.
"Raf, Peridot here is the Botanist/Tech wiz of the Crystal Gems. She's actually won several rewards for discovering new and improved ways of farming for mass production and inventing eco-friendly tools," Urbana said, then to Peridot she added, "And Peridot, Raf here is one of the smartest fourteen-year-old's I have seen in a while. He's learned basic Cybertronian. He knows how to code in cybertronian and coding in general. And he knows how to get rid of photos on the Internet."
"Wow, really," Peridot said.
"Yah," Raph said while playing with his shirt nervously.
"That is so cool," she said, eyes beaming, "Earth's Internet has always stumped me. Do you think you could tell me what you do?"
"Sure."
Urbana left the four of them be. Then passing Goliath who was currently playing with his granddaughter Hazel, Urbana went back to Jack.
"Hey, uh, is Cliff here," Jack asked, standing in a lone corner of the living room.
"No. Why?" Urbana asked.
"I don't know. I just feel nervous being around so many strangers. Especially strangers who are a thing that I didn't really know was a thing," Jack said.
Urbana followed his gaze to see that he was staring at Thing and Gizmo playing with each other.
"Oh, yah. I know what you mean. Come on. I have someone I want you to talk with," Urbana said as the two of them walked up to Brooklyn.
"Hey Urbana," Brooklyn greeted, "Thanks for getting that new muffler for me, for Lex to install. She purrs like a kitten now."
"Good to hear," Urbana said, then she stepped aside and said, "This is Jack. He likes motorcycles too and his motorcycle can turn into a giant robot lady."
"Whoa! Really," Brooklyn asked.
"Yah. Her name's Arcee. She's my best friend," Jack said.
"Can you do any cool tricks on your bike?" the red gargoyle asked.
"Arcee does most of the cool tricks, but yes," Jack said, then asked, "What about you?"
"I just mastered the Pommel Horse," Brooklyn said as he was taking his phone out of his leather pouch hanging from his belt, "I had Lex film it for me."
Jack leaned in to watch Brooklyn's balancing act on his motorcycle and Urbana let them be.
While everyone was talking amongst themselves, Urbana gathered her notes that she's been keeping so that she can remember what was talked about the last time they gathered together. After looking through the notes, she called everyone over to sit in the circle. Wednesday sat on her left and Claw sat on her right.
Once Everyone was seated, Urbana said, "Alright everyone. We have five new visitors among us. They will all introduce themselves to the group first and then we'll continue the conversation from the last meeting. Krel. How about you go first."
The meeting went well and as Urbana promised, Urbana talked with Krel. The two of them sat in the dark on the front door's stoop, outside.
"Alright Krel. Do you speak with your parents often?" she asked.
"Uh, no? They're dead," Krel said, "If you can't see them at all. Then that just means they're really gone forever."
Urbana back handed him against his shoulder. It didn't hurt him, but it did surprise him.
"Don't talk like that," Urbana said, sounding miffed, but then she took a deep breath then said in an even tone, "Look. It's true that not everyone has the "gift" of being able to see ghosts, but that doesn't mean that it's meaningless to speak with the dead. Do you have any kind of rituals that you preform for your dead relatives?"
"No. What would be the point of it?" Krel asked, then said, "Like you said, I can't speak with ghosts and neither can Aja."
"That is not what I said," Urbana said deadpanned, then she sighed, then said, "We're going to do a little exercise."
"Oh… Um. I'm not the most athletic person on Earth or on Akiridion-5," Krel said.
"That's fine," Urbana said, then asked, "Do you have any photos of your parents?"
Krel fiddled with his watch then a hologram photo lit up the dark night, showing a photo of four people with blue skin and electric blue hair, wearing dark blue skintight suits, and all of them have four arms. The song, Blue (Da Ba Dee), started playing in Urbana's head, but she immediately squished it silent as she spoke.
"Your parents look like very nice people," she said.
"They were," Krel said.
"So, what I want you to do is look at your parent's photo and tell them what you've been up to," Urbana said.
Krel was silent for a long moment, then asked, "What should I even say?"
"Oh. It doesn't matter," Urbana said, "I'll give you an example," Urbana then looked at the hologram photo and said, "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Krel's parents. I'm Urbana. Nice to meet you. So for the upcoming family reunion my dead mother and I have been practicing the only Jazz song I know how to sing for us to preform together. We practice every month and it's been fun practicing music with my Mom again. Also, I ate a gooseberry pie for the first time. I wasn't a big fan."
Urbana then put an arm around Krel's shoulders and motioned for him to say something.
"Uh, I improved my boom box that I got from Stuart. If I have the volume halfway up almost the whole neighborhood can hear it," Krel said, "…Are they here?"
Urbana looked around themselves to make sure, but she knew they weren't going to just show up after a little bit of talking.
"No. They're not here," Urbana said.
Krel sighed, sounding frustrated.
"Look. You're a tech inventor, right," Urbana asked.
Krel snorted, then said with a sad smile, "That's a simple way to describe it."
"Well. When you first invent something, does it work on the first time you build it," Urbana asked.
"No? Of course not. There's a lot of trial and error and note taking and scrapping whole swathes of ideas that seemed like a solution but didn't work out, so you have to try a completely different way to get to the desired outcome," Krel said.
"I need you to keep that kind of mindset while you are speaking with your parents," Urbana said, "Speaking with the dead isn't easy, especially if you're not use to it. I want you to try speaking with the photo of your parents as often as you can. I want you to speak with your sister and any other relatives that you have and share stories with each other about your parents. Even though they are dead, it's important to keep speaking with your parents as if they are alive. Okay?"
"This is like an experiment," Krel said.
"Yah! Exactly," Urbana agreed, then she said, "So let's meet up again in, oh, about three months' time. Then I'll see if any progress has been made. Okay?"
"Yah. I think I can do that," Krel said.
The Trollhunters team was the last group to leave and the five of them walked through a dark magic portal that Claire made, taking them all back home. Wednesday and Pugsley helped Urbana clean up the mess in the living room.
# # #
The new moon was hiding, allowing the stars to shine bright upon the quiet, cool night. Urbana was riding on Licorice as the two of them were racing along on treetops and sleeping people's rooftops. Urbana and Licorice were enjoying the feeling of the cool wind on their faces as Licorice ran even faster, the Nightmare's sliver mane and tail streaking behind them like beams of moonlight.
Soon, the two of them saw streaks of golden sand snaking over a small town that Urbana didn't recognize. They followed the flowing golden sand to its source.
"Hey Sandy," Urbana respectfully whispered, "How have you been, Cuz?"
An emoji image of a smile-y face appeared over Sandman's head.
"Oh, wow. Really?" Urbana said under her breath in surprise, "What's making you so happy?"
Sandman made an outline picture of Pitch then crossed him out.
"Oh, God! Pitch is Dead," Urbana shouted in surprise.
Sandman shook his head vigorously, then a question mark appeared over his head.
"Oh," Urbana said, being quieter, "You just haven't seen him in a while?"
He nodded his golden little head.
"Aren't you worried?" Urbana asked.
Sandman gave Urbana a look that said, are-you-kidding-me-why-would-I-care-about-that-asshole?
"Look, I think he's an asshole too, but I just think that has something to do with his idea of how he thinks he has to present himself, since you know, he's the embodiment of fear," Urbana whispered.
Sandman then painstakingly explained to Urbana how Pitch killed every member of Bunnymund's family, leaving him the only one of his kind. Sandman also explained how that's not the only horrible thing he's done.
"Oh… I had no idea…" Urbana said, "I'm sorry. I won't bring him up to you guys anymore and I won't ask you to help me find him. I'll leave you to your work now. Let's go Licorice."
Sandman tried to stop her, but Licorice moved too fast for him.
Once the Sandman's golden sand was out of sight, Urbana asked Licorice, "Do you think you can find him?"
Licorice gave a confident whinny then made a sharp left turn and ran at exceptional speeds, so much so that Urbana had to lay as flat on Licorice's back as she could to keep herself from flying backwards off her back. Soon the two of them were floating down into a nowhere timber area. Urbana could see between the shadows and the star light that there was an abandoned bed that looked nasty with weeds and dirt coming out of it. It looked a lot like the bed she saw in Pitch's mindscape. Urbana hopped off Licorice's back then awkwardly walked up to the rotting bed.
Urbana knocked on the bed's padding and said, "Knock. Knock?"
"What do you what? Came here to gloat or something?" Pitch said, his voice coming from underneath the rotten bed.
"No? I'm just worried. I spoke with Sandy not long ago and he said he hasn't seen you in a while and it made me realize that I haven't been having any kind of nightmares at all myself. So, are you okay?" Urbana asked.
He was silent.
"Why did you think I came here to gloat?" Urbana asked him.
"You convinced me to let you wake up from your coma, even after I told you I would never do it," Pitch said, sounding like it pained him to even acknowledge it.
Urbana looked at the bed in confusion, then said, "I didn't convince you to do shit, sir. I remember thanking you for helping me realize that I wasn't taking care of myself as well as I should and then I woke up."
"Shut up! Don't remind me," Pitch said.
Urbana sat in the dead grass surrounding the decaying bed and leaned her back against it.
"Sandy told me how you killed Mr. Easter Bunny's family. Why did you do that?" Urbana asked.
"Because I'm evil. Because I'm a monster. Because that's what I wanted to do," Pitch said cruelly, but Urbana thought she could hear a twinge of sadness in his voice too.
"Do you regret it?" Urbana asked.
Pitch was silent for a long time before he said, "No."
Urbana then stood up, dusted off her backside, then said, "Then I'm never going to try speaking with you ever again."
As Urbana was walking towards Licorice, Pitch called out, asking, "What was the point of all this? You've always known I'm a monster."
"No, I didn't Pitch. I knew you as a creature who had the job of being a scary person. I thought a lot of things, but I didn't think of you as a monster. So, congratulations, Pitch. I think of you as a monster now, "Urbana said as she hopped onto Licorice's back, then said, "Be sure to take care of yourself, because now you officially have no one who cares about you anymore. Good night."
Licorice jumped into the air and galloped Urbana back home, leaving Pitch alone.