L

11:44 P.M.

Ballroom.

"You know what I wonder now? How's the principal going to explain all this?" Scarah glosses out loud. "Seriously, don't even expect me to try and erase all those minds, I can only do so much."

The music keeps playing on the back, the lights dancing where the students should be.

At this point, the ghouls have taken a table and chairs to sit while eating all the snacks and candies left, drinking soda while waiting for their friends to make it back from the bubble.

"Yeah, well… is a good thing this isn't the only monster school there is, is it?" Frankie answers without any concern in her voice, seizing a mini screechzza.

"Are you kidding me?! We'd be losing an entire year if we had to get transferred because of a sudden shut down!" Scarah exclaims. "More than that, we'd be —"

"Calm down, nothing bad will happen! It always works out somehow, in a stupid way or another, this all works out." Frankie says with utmost calm in her voice, and cold indifference in her attitude towards the fate of the school.

Or perhaps it is utmost confidence that everything will work itself out as always? It seems this place has been blessed that way.

"She's right, knowing this school, no matter what happens, this will end with everyone heading back home with some spooky and awesome memories of tonight, and the school will open for at least another two hundred years." Jinafire states stoically.

"Sure, just don't expect me to make those memories."

Frankie stares at her, with peeved eyes. "He's right, you're useless."

"I'm just saying, I'm not supposed to clean someone else's mess."

"That is even worse, you're the same kind of useless as him."

She lost it, as in absolutely lost it. It takes the combined efforts of Polterghoul and Wonder Wolf to hold her still and calm her with some help from Venus and her pollen.

"I knew I could make you useful," he states dispassionately.

"Shut up!" Venus snarls at him.

"You think you're having a bad night? I should be watching slashers with porn right now. Instead I'm trapped in here."

"All right. You're up! What is your plan to fix this mess and get us all the way back to the real world?" Wonder Wolf inquiries with a set frown on her brow.

"Well, my plan to transfer all of Casta's magic into me so I can use my talent and knowledge to fix her screw up. Sadly is gonna take a while, as I said, a careful procedure. If we're lucky and I get the job done before the Dreaded Titan Lord Phobos shows up, then you won't have to fight him."

"Who's that one?" Polterghoul asks, and her question seems to break something inside him… his patience.

"Who is —? He is only but the ultimate supreme evil in the Vindicator's universe in which we happen to be stuck. Almost nothing in the franchise is bigger than him."

"Great. So I just got to go outside and keep bashing ugly things with unrestrained brute force. No problem, there is no such thing for a wolf as too much hunting." Wonder states.

Dear Lord, she doesn't even listen to a word I say.

"Oh no, I strongly suggest you don't make that move unless he shows his face. He is to their world what Thanos and Darkseid would be to any world if they did a fusion dance with Potara earrings, a divinity boost, and a nice trick of using people's fear —"

"We're monsters superheroes! Care to see what our fears are like?" she cuts in.

"I'm telling you he's a god! A super evil fucked-up god of fear from outer space in an interplanetary conquest that literally can't stop — won't stop."

"That sounds pretty bad, you know what could come in handy? To have a god on our side! If only somebody here had at least a mask of some god. Come on! You telling you don't wanna fight what I can tell is your favorite villain?"

"He's not my favorite, my favorite is Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, in any and all iterations."

"That is not my point. My point is, wouldn't it be better if you stopped him now, and then get from Casta whatever you need?

"I agree with her on that," Webarella interjects. "He's so bad, that when he comes looking for her, we might not stop him unless we got like five of the ten Forever Rings or the Anti-Existence Formula of Tomorrow no More."

"Not, with that attitude you can't!" He snaps at her. "At least you know your League of Vindication comics lore. And for the record, they changed the name to the Nevermore Formula."

"For the movie. I prefer the classic name."

"Yeah, but the real nightmare is to say that name in the single sentence." Keith turns back to Clawdeen with his usual deadpan, the excitement he brewed from this sudden geek exchange with Wydowna neatly sealed away. "I'm not even sure just wearing the mask will do it. Not to mention, there is no version of Anubis in his league."

"How about this, if it works and you help us keep them safe, I'll fight a whole pack of velociraptors for you."

"Deal! Twyla!" he calls out, and from the shadows, the teal colored ghoul steps out, her cyan and violet slit dress shaped now into a nurse dress with a hat included, branded with an skullette over a nine point star.

"Called for me, sir?" asks she in an oddly obedient manner.

"I assume you used your magic to change her outfit." Clawdeen asks.

"Yes. Listen, I'll be out fighting the forces of evil, Maybe. Make sure to call me the very second the patient is up and prepare the room for the ritual. This are the herbs I'll need, make sure Venus grows them and then boil them inside Robecca's boiler system," he explains holding out a small bag with seeds in it. "Usually I'll have to burn them, but their steam actually proves to be more effective than the smoke and less annoying. I want that room steamy as a sauna, and don't forget to double check the sigils I taught you. The words have to be precise."

"You got it, slim. Hey, does that mean I'm a witch now?"

"You're a sorcerer doctor's nurse. That's why the nurse outfit. All right, let's go"

What was that? Wonder wonders in silence.

11:48 P.M.

"All I'm saying is every time I get excited with one of these movies they always do something stupid that kills the franchise, end up rebooted all over again, waiting to see if they finally finish the story." Jinafire argues with Scarah and Frankie.

"She's right," Operetta agrees. "I've seen the first movie, loved it, but I still feel this sequel will be the one that kills the franchise as always. They did stage one, it was the big event of that summer — they should have let die."

"Yeah, well… I am looking forward to this one. The plans for stage two and three are really promising and I so wished I had gone in there!" Scarah says.

"Why wouldn't he want you in?" Operetta asks.

"I guess he felt I could do more here keeping people away from the room. Not like I have much to do now, only sense very few minds and most of them are… too busy to bother dancing again." Scarah explain, as if she didn't know the whole truth of the matter.

"Busy?"

"You know, busy."

"Right… I figure that explains why we haven't seen anyone in while." Jinafire says, sitting upright.

"I try to ignore them, as I will with every spoiler they bring back."

"I'm sure they'll prove my point," Operetta says.

In the midst of all this chaos and all her emotional distress, Frankie's heart warms to see that Operetta is, even if in a small part, becoming herself again. The few instances she's seen her before and since her rehab, she hasn't been much talkative, but here she is talking with her friends at least, just as usual, and as usual their friends are in a weird stupid problem.

"I wonder if they're already killing the big bad guy or whatever? Scarah asks.

Well, as it turns out, the big bad guy has them against the ropes, beaten and ready to scape into the real world