FRANKENSTEIN

The old school has a creepy ambience. Nothing new to me here. As part of Van Helsing's Hunting Party, we've gone on all kinds of various missions. And we've visited plenty of old abandoned places.

Springdale Riding Academy is a walk in the park. Van Helsing takes the lead, with me right behind him, electric hammer at the ready. I.G.O.R., the Bride, the Invisible Man, and Mr. Hyde are all clearing our sides and flanks. As well as three more guests joining us today.

"So, you know about the Temporal Order, right?" Marty Wright asks Abe.

"Time-traveling wizards, yeah. Tara's one of them."

"Back when we were looking through Dylan's past, we ended up uncovering something." Erin adds. "The world would soon be ruled by robots, like us. The Steel Legion."

"No thanks. I'm already busy enough WITHOUT a Terminator."

"We managed to destroy the central A.I. sometime after the Midnight Society split." Mark states. "But I'm still picking up some traces left in Cyberspace. They lead directly here. From what I've gathered, it's thanks to some kind of glitch in robotic programming. A virus."

"Virus, huh?" Abe asks. "Well, I was headed here to get some more info on one of Slappy's previous owners…guess you start doing one thing and end up doing another."

"So…I'm guessing this central A.I. was responsible for creating this virus." I say. "Where'd it escape to?"

"It infected an android built by the Jones family." Erin answered. "Mrs. Bernard. Made her self-aware, and she became too smart and malevolent. She even made robot copies of her own. While her body WAS destroyed, it's possible that the A.I. migrated into another body."

"And you're thinking it's here?" Maria asks.

"Just about." Mark says, readying a Cyber Katana and peeking in through a door into another hallway. It's then that we realize what this place REALLY is.

The fire alarm goes off, blaring like a REAL alarm! And a P.A. system blares in a robotic tone.

"ALERT. ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDERS DETECTED."

The lockers swing open, and robots climb out! Their eyes glare with a blue glow and they march forward.

"We got company!" Abe shouts, readying his shotgun and gun-sword.

"Halt." The robots speak. "You are coming with us."

Abe responds by shooting one in the head, then decapitating another. Mark rushes forward, blitzing past laser blasts from the palms and slicing bots to bits with his katana. Erin and Marty fly up, slicing and blasting their way through the robot horde. Hyde and Jack punch, shoot, and possess others. Man, Victor would LOVE to see how these robots operated.

Meanwhile, Maria and I fall back on our own plan: Firing massive electric charges from our lightning gun and hammer, the green lightning zaps the robots and short-circuits them!

"Well, THAT'S effective." Abe notes.

"Got it! The A.I.'s in the gym! This way!"

We race through the halls of the school, with various robots either walking or running after us. Abe blocks and deflects the blasts with Mark, and thanks to the electric force-field, any robot that gets near us is fried.

It's really quite fascinating. Back in my day, I tried giving life to a corpse. Now life doesn't even need to be ORGANIC to be sentient.

The robots fall like scrap. All while emotionlessly ordering us on repeat to halt. Eventually, we make our way to the gym. I kick the doors open…and it's then that many more robotic copies turn to face us.

They all dematerialize their holographic human disguises. And I notice a female robotic being that seems to be their leader. She has gray-silver plating, with gray joints, wires, and steel inner working. She has green glowing eyes and a green dome with a bunch of chips and motherboards. Like a big robot brain. She's even got antennas on the sides of her head. Like my bolts.

"Francine!" Marty realizes who this is. "You're the robot built by Livvy Jones and Gates Warwas for their school Robotics Club for a competition!"

"They did not listen to me. They escaped, and got hurt." Francine states. "You thought you could delete me? The Steel Legion forever lives. You are inferior defects. Your conscience will be terminated. And you will be upgraded."

"No way are we letting that future happen!" Erin says. "We WILL defend humanity!"

"Defend humanity? A fatal error. Your beliefs and hopes will be…deleted."

Maria only charges up her lightning gun and fires. Francine only holds out a hand, and a digital shield, a firewall of sorts, manages to block the lightning! Mark only throws out a pixelated lightning bolt using his Cyberspace connection, but even though it shocks and sparks on Francine…it does nothing!

"Shockproof, huh?" He asked. "Time for a hard reset!"

"Inferior. Your odds are infinity to one." Francine states. "I have already calculated ten million ways to terminate you. Your probability is…zero."

The robotic minions charge forward! The Hunting Party begins scrapping them as Erin, Marty, Mark, Maria, and I head for Francine. I fire green lightning at the robot, but it does nothing against her form. She then conjures a digital blade to block Mark's.

"Cyberspace is no dimension that humans are free to use the power of. Organic life is obsolete. We are the future."

She spin-kicks Mark back before blocking blasts from the Wright twins before easily matching and overpowering them. Hesitation is a human thing. And Francine is free from the shackles. But sometimes, hesitation is a good thing.

Finally, Francine turns to face us. I'm sure she doesn't recognize what kind of organics we are.

"You are organic…yet…you are deceased. How? This…does not compute."

"This body was created. Like you." I replied. "Using science from another time. Lightning jump-started the heart. We were both created by man. But we have something you don't: A soul."

"Electricity resurrecting an organic body? Impossible. The science you speak of is inferior and obsolete. You are already deceased. Abominations. You must be terminated."

"The future may be interesting and all…" Maria states. "But I'm more of a fan of the classics."

Francine ran up to us and delivered a heavy punch. I grab her arm and slam her to the ground, but she proves just as strong and throws ME off. She tanks Maria's lightning gun and kicks it from her grip. Maria winces when she punches steel, and she's forced to dodge more attacks. I slam my hammer into Francine to send her flying, but she recovers in mid-air.

Mark only vanishes into Cyberspace. He's going to try and take out the A.I. directly. Which leaves us with the task of dealing with the main body. Alright then. Time to kick some shiny metal ass.

Francine's no mere machine. She calculates every probability. Mark must've used his ninja stealth. Otherwise she would've felt his presence. Going in for the stealth kill. It won't be long.

Maria and I keep on the assault. She's able to match us both with minimal effort. That's when I notice something. The computer brain.

"You know, it took my old buddy Igor Fritz a while to find a proper brain for this body." I say. "However long it took for YOU to get one…well, given a design like that…I guess you as an artificial being aren't so intelligent after all!"

Maria only opens fire with her lightning gun, with Francine effortlessly blocking it.

"Your efforts are futile, stupid humans." She only states. "I will return you to the graves you so rightfully be….be-be-belo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-."

Bingo! Mark managed to break through the firewall! He's managed to corrupt the main A.I.! The digital barrier falters, the body getting shocked immensely by the green lightning! I take this chance, and smash my large warhammer down on the machine's brain, shattering the green dome and the motherboards inside.

This manages to shut Francine down, and thus the other robots. Mark digitizes back into the real-world, sheathing his katana.

"Virus…eliminated." He states. "Nerfed it, too. It won't be migrating anytime soon."

"Yes!" Erin states. "NOW the future is changed for the better!"

There are several sparks from Francine. And then, she begins speaking.

"How…is t-t-this…pooooosibleeee…?" She glitches. "My i-i-inner sensors sho-o-o-o-uld have detected any intruders in the syyyyys-s-s-s-s-s-tem…"

"Nothing a bit of Cyberspace tech can't handle." Mark states. "The Steel Legion is only nothing but a bunch of deleted code now."

"Y-Y-Y-Yooooou fooooolsssss….have you not noticed how desolate this place had become?" Francine groans. "What's going on out there will make you wish you were back home. I have an infinite capacity for knowledge. And even I'm not sure what's going on inside. All I know is that I'm the only one standing between us…and them. Well…I was…"

"Them?" Van Helsing asks. "What's them?"

"I am…not…certain. I planned…to exterminate…them all. To make this town…the first Steel Legion territory…we were to expand…across the world…"

"Sorry, but there's ALREADY someone trying to take over the world." The hunter sighed, walking up to the robot. "We'd have even MORE trouble if we had to deal with TWO of them."

"I suggest you run…this place isn't going to be safe for much longer…"

And with that, Francine shuts down.

"What the hell did she mean about that?" I only ask. It's then that Van Helsing hears something. He senses something.

It's not long before we hear it too. Footsteps. MANY footsteps. And roaring. Banging. Moaning! All of it…coming closer!

"Huuuungryyyyyy….." The voices moan. "IIIIIII'M HUUUUUNNNNGRYYYYY!"

"We gotta go." The hunter says. "We have to go NOW!"

We don't stick around to see what's making those noises. They don't sound familiar. All I know is that there sounds like MANY of them. No way can we fight that many at once.

We burst out of the school, and the sounds got louder. That's when I see the night sky. The moon…is red again!

"What the hell?!" Van Helsing screams. "We removed the curse! How is that possible?!"

"The Midnight Hour!" I remember. "The monsters are stronger during this time!"

"Back to Dead House! Hurry!"

I hear the swarm scramble to our location from all directions. It's hard to see in the darkness, but I hear the dark roars in the winds.

"HUNGRY! I'M HUNGRY! HUNGRY! I'M HUNGRY! HUNGRY! I'M HUNGRY! HUNGRY! I'M HUNGRY!"

We managed to get back to the street. Van Helsing quickly kicked the door open to Dead House and we rushed inside.

"GO GO GO!" He yells. I don't look back. Once all nine of us are inside, he slams the door shut and locks it.

It's then that the noise stops.

"Woah…uh…" I.G.O.R. says as he looks at the window. "Okay…we've got a problem…"

Mr. Hyde joins him and gasps. "Holy shit…"

Sure enough, it's enough to make even MY blood run cold. Silhouettes. Dark shadowy silhouettes of HUNDREDS of people. All with cold blank white eyes. All staring directly at us.

"They're not getting close to this house." The Invisible Man stated. "How did we not notice this before?"

"We were only active during the day, not the night." Van Helsing says. "They'll likely be gone either at one in the morning or if the sun comes up."

Surely the rest of the Midnight Society took notice once midnight began. They seem rather spooked. The crowd of ominous figures still stand there. On the street. On the sidewalk. Even the backyard! But they don't even move an INCH towards the house. It's like a barrier.

They just stare at us. Watching us. If one of us even steps outside the house, they might right at that poor soul and rip it to pieces.

"Alright, hunters." Van Helsing states. "This town seems a lot more dangerous than it looks, so I'm laying down a new ground rule. Never, EVER, under ANY circumstances, be outside when midnight falls. Understand?"

"Yeah…" Cory stammers. "Dylan's lucky. Horrorville is NORMAL compared to this place!"

"Not sure why they don't come near this house, but I'm not taking any chances." Van Helsing adds. "Ben, help me barricade the doors and windows. The rest of you, set up traps and defenses. Make sure NONE of those things can get inside."

We immediately rush to work. I only stared out back at the shrouded crowd. One of them raises a hand. And waves.

Hello, it seems to say. And soon…goodbye.