Chapter 4
The next day, at the college, Lydia was trying to pay attention to Dr. Notrub's lecture. But it was hard with Claire talking to her new cool clique about her behind her back. "Take one good look at her, girls. Like, she's a total refugee from a horror film. But it's pretty fitting that she came to the college here. What a creepy town," whispered Claire. Her clique giggled and snickered. Lydia groaned.
Dr. Notrub frowned. "Would you please pay attention, Miss Brewster?" he asked. "Yes, Dr. Notre Dame," said Claire. "That's Notrub," responded Dr. Notrub. Claire ignored him and continued to talk to her clique.
"But fortunately for her, she's not the biggest freak in this town," said Claire. Lydia started to eavesdrop. 'Could it be Claire has found someone else to pick on?' she thought. "The bigger freaks are those heroes I keep hearing about. The ones who saved the town a few days ago? Heroes, indeed! I bet they're the ones who started the trouble and just stopped it to make themselves look good. Plus, they're such tacky dressers," said Claire. Lydia groaned again. 'That Claire. She doesn't know a good thing when she sees one,' thought Lydia.
Dr. Notrub was about to tell Claire off for talking in class again when the fire bell suddenly went off. "Oh my! Students, remain calm and proceed to the fire exit," said Dr. Notrub. Everyone started to get up and head for the door. Except Claire who was gathering her things into her backpack.
"Claire! We've got to get out of here quickly! If there is a fire, we have to get moving!" yelled Lydia angrily. "Like, chill out Lydia. I'm not leaving any of my things behind. They were expensive," said Claire. Lydia sighed and left the classroom. Dr. Notrub waited until Claire left after gathering her things and then he proceeded to join his students.
Dr. Notrub led the students through the hallways. "This way, class. We'll get to the fire escape soon enough," he said. "Dr. Notrub? This could be my imagination. But I don't smell any smoke or gas," said Lydia. Dr. Notrub sniffed the air. "You're right Lydia. And since this college is only one story high, you would be able to smell smoke from anywhere on this floor if there was a fire," said Dr. Notrub. "Then, like, why did the fire alarm go off?" asked Claire.
Just then, a muscular man dressed in gym wear rushed toward them. "Coach Keaton, what's going on?" asked Dr. Notrub. "We have trouble, Dr. Notrub. A couple of weirdoes have broken into the college. I was training the football team out on the fieldwhen all of a sudden, two bizarre creatures dropped out of the sky," said the man.
"Bizarre creatures? What did they look like?" asked Dr. Notrub. "One looked like a metallic demon skeleton wielding a scythe. The other was a man dressed in hunting attire and an oversized hat covering his head. He was holding a blunderbuss. Before I could stop them, the hunter one shot some sort of beam from his blunderbuss at the team. It did something horrible to all of them. Slowly, their heads transformed into shrunken heads. It wasn't natural. I ran inside and pulled the fire alarm. The last thing I heard was the hunter commanding them to round up everyone in the college," said Coach Keaton.
Dr. Notrub gasped and looked at Lydia who had a stunned look on her face as well. "It probably wasn't a good idea to pull the fire alarm. With everyone piling out of the classrooms, it will be easier for them to round up everyone," said Dr. Notrub. "Oh no! Look!" panicked a male student pointing down the hallway.
They all looked ahead and saw two burly figures marching toward them. They were dressed in football uniforms. But their heads had been shrunk. Coach Keaton and the students screamed in fear except for Dr. Notrub and Lydia who just stared at them.
"What have they done to the players' handsome faces?" asked Claire shallow as always. "What are we going to do?" asked another female student. "I'll hold them off! Dr. Notrub, get your students to safety," said Coach Keaton charging toward the players like a mad bull.
"Quickly everyone! Back to my classroom!" commanded Dr. Notrub. Lydia, Claire and the other students turned around and ran down the hallway leaving Coach Keaton to fend off the players with the shrunken heads.
Soon enough, Dr. Notrub led his class back into his classroom and shut the door. "We've got to block it quickly!" exclaimed Dr. Notrub. The students started to pile up desks in front of the door. Loud banging came from the other side of the door. "Don't let them in!" yelled Dr. Notrub.
Lydia walked up to Dr. Notrub and whispered, "We've got to do something. That metallic skeleton can only be one thing: Mecha-Reaper!" "Yes. And from what Coach Keaton told us, it seems he's got some sort of Neither- monster with him. But what can we do? We can't reveal to everyone that we're the Spooky Heroes," said Dr. Notrub in a low voice.
Then he noticed Claire had opened a window. "Claire! What are you doing?" he asked. "I'm like totally getting out of here. I for one do not intend to be trapped in here with all of you," said Claire as she started to climb out the window. "We may be trapped in here. But it's much safer in here than out there," said Dr. Notrub. "That's your opinion," said Claire in her snooty tone.
But before she could move anymore, a head-shrunk student suddenly grabbed her from outside. Claire shrieked. Several students rushed to her aid and pulled her out of the head-shrunk student's grasp. One of them closed the windows. "Use the long tables in the back and prop them up against the windows. We can't let them in," said Dr. Notrub. The students followed his orders and then he turned to Lydia.
"We need to get help. We're stuck in a scene reminiscent of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The classic one, not the remake I mean," whispered Dr. Notrub. Then Lydia's face lit up. "We may be trapped in here. But we can use the watches to call Beetlejuice and Jack. They can help us," said Lydia. "Good thinking, Lydia! I'll keep the rest of the students occupied while you call them," said Dr. Notrub turning to the rest of the students. He started to tell them to keep calm. Lydia rolled back the sleeve of her black blouse revealing a digital watch that was embedded in the mouth of a skull. She pressed a button in the right eye socket.
Meanwhile, at 1313 Poe Lane, Beetlejuice in the library, perched on a ladder in front of Dr. Notrub's tall bookshelf filled with horror stories. While he perused the bookshelf, strange shadows crept across it through another of Dr. Notrub's haunted house effects. "Let's see. There's got to be something interesting to read here. Ah! Here's something good: Tales from the Crypt comics. Truly a comedy masterpiece," said Beetlejuice.
Before he could reach the comic, an ear-piercing scream rang out from his wrist. It startled him so much that he accidentally pushed himself away from the bookshelf. "Whoa!" yelled Beetlejuice as the ladder fell backwards and he crashed onto the floor. After he picked himself up, he muttered, "Good thing I'm already dead or that would have killed me."
Then he remembered the screaming. "That's the Blood Red Alert! There must be trouble," he said. He rolled up his sleeve revealing his own skull watch and pressed a button. An image of Lydia appeared in the mouth of the skull. "Lydia, what's wrong?" he asked.
"There's trouble here at the college, BJ. Mecha-Reaper is here with some sort of monster from the Neitherworld. I don't know what it is yet. But it's shrinking the heads of students and turning them into mind-controlled zombies. We need you and Jack to get over here quickly," said Lydia in a whispered voice. "I'm on my way, Lyds. In the meantime, you and the doc try to hold them off," said Beetlejuice. "We can't. They've got us trapped in the classroom with Claire and the other students," said Lydia. "Just hang in there, Lydia. We'll be there soon," said Beetlejuice. Lydia's image vanished from the watch's screen.
'I knew this sort of thing would happen. I know the reason why Dr. Grim sent his goons to attack the college. They're trying to get at Lydia to get to me. Well, this time, they've gone too far,' thought Beetlejuice as rage boiled within him.
"Jack!" called Beetlejuice. In a few moments, the doors of the library opened and Jack rushed in. "I heard the Blood Red Alert. What's the matter?" asked the skeleton. "No time to explain. Lydia and the doc are in trouble at the college. We've got to get over there quick," said Beetlejuice raising his skull watch to his left hand. "Time to go to work. I hope this transport technology works right. After all, Dr. Notrub only recently complete my battle gear," said Jack raising his own skull watch.
"Ready, Jack?" asked Beetlejuice. "Ready, Beetlejuice," said Jack. Then in unison they yelled, "Let's get spooky!" They pressed the buttons in the left eye sockets and instantaneously, they were bathed in glowing blue light.
From the light where Beetlejuice stood, his voice rang out, "Beetlejuice! The ghost with the most! Fright Force Blaster!" The light vanished from around Beetlejuice and he stood wearing a black and white armored suit along with a black and white striped cape and a black and white striped hood covering the top half of his face. His weapon, the Fright Force Blaster, a black metal box was attached to his back and the fingerless gloves attached to it were covering his hands.
Then Jack's voice called, "Jack Skellington! The Pumpkin King! Skeleton Sabers!" The glow around Jack vanished and he stood in his new battle suit. He was covered in pumpkin orange armor. His head was encased in a metal Jack-O-Lantern. His empty eye sockets gazed through the eyeholes of the Jack-O-Lantern and his mouth could be seen from behind its wide scary grin. On his back was a double scabbard containing two swords.
"This armor is really impressive. Dr. Notrub told me that it's lightweight and yet strong enough to resist the mightiest of blows," said Jack. "It's show time, Jack! To the basement!" yelled Beetlejuice as he floated out of the library with Jack running beside him.
As Beetlejuice floated and Jack ran down the stairs to Dr. Notrub's basement laboratory, Beetlejuice called, "Doomie! Rev it up! We've got an emergency!"
Sitting in the center of the laboratory facing the entrance to a tunnel was a green convertible car. It's grill was grinning mouth and it's headlights were eyes. It was sleeping until it heard Beetlejuice call and then it woke up. Beetlejuice and Jack quickly jumped into the front seat of Doomie.
"No time to explain, Doomie. Lydia and Dr. Notrub are in trouble at the college," said Beetlejuice. Doomie nodded and sped off down the tunnel.
"Uh Beetlejuice, aren't we forgetting something?" asked Jack. "We have everything we need," said Beetlejuice. "Did you remember to open the door at the end of the tunnel so we don't crash?" asked Jack. "Uh oh," said Beetlejuice looking ahead. The automatic door at the end of the tunnel wasn't open. Beetlejuice shrieked as his eyes bulged out of their sockets. Jack screamed too.
Beetlejuice quickly turned around and stretched his arm back toward the laboratory. His hand stretched around several corners and pulled on a lever. The automatic door opened and they barely made it out as Doomie soared into the sky. "I must talk to Dr. Notrub about rigging the automatic doors to open whenever Doomie enters the tunnel like they do when the Creep Captor is called. On the bright side, these new flight modifications I built into Doomie work great," said Beetlejuice looking over at Jack.
Jack looked scared stiff. "What's the matter? Does the Pumpkin King have a fear of flying?" asked Beetlejuice. "Let's just say I'm not very fond of flying. Especially after the time I was shot out of the sky on Christmas Eve," said Jack. "Don't worry, Jack. We're not getting shot out of the sky today. I hope," said Beetlejuice. The ghost and the skeleton in their monster car continued on their flight toward the college. They hoped they weren't too late to save Lydia and Dr. Notrub.
The next day, at the college, Lydia was trying to pay attention to Dr. Notrub's lecture. But it was hard with Claire talking to her new cool clique about her behind her back. "Take one good look at her, girls. Like, she's a total refugee from a horror film. But it's pretty fitting that she came to the college here. What a creepy town," whispered Claire. Her clique giggled and snickered. Lydia groaned.
Dr. Notrub frowned. "Would you please pay attention, Miss Brewster?" he asked. "Yes, Dr. Notre Dame," said Claire. "That's Notrub," responded Dr. Notrub. Claire ignored him and continued to talk to her clique.
"But fortunately for her, she's not the biggest freak in this town," said Claire. Lydia started to eavesdrop. 'Could it be Claire has found someone else to pick on?' she thought. "The bigger freaks are those heroes I keep hearing about. The ones who saved the town a few days ago? Heroes, indeed! I bet they're the ones who started the trouble and just stopped it to make themselves look good. Plus, they're such tacky dressers," said Claire. Lydia groaned again. 'That Claire. She doesn't know a good thing when she sees one,' thought Lydia.
Dr. Notrub was about to tell Claire off for talking in class again when the fire bell suddenly went off. "Oh my! Students, remain calm and proceed to the fire exit," said Dr. Notrub. Everyone started to get up and head for the door. Except Claire who was gathering her things into her backpack.
"Claire! We've got to get out of here quickly! If there is a fire, we have to get moving!" yelled Lydia angrily. "Like, chill out Lydia. I'm not leaving any of my things behind. They were expensive," said Claire. Lydia sighed and left the classroom. Dr. Notrub waited until Claire left after gathering her things and then he proceeded to join his students.
Dr. Notrub led the students through the hallways. "This way, class. We'll get to the fire escape soon enough," he said. "Dr. Notrub? This could be my imagination. But I don't smell any smoke or gas," said Lydia. Dr. Notrub sniffed the air. "You're right Lydia. And since this college is only one story high, you would be able to smell smoke from anywhere on this floor if there was a fire," said Dr. Notrub. "Then, like, why did the fire alarm go off?" asked Claire.
Just then, a muscular man dressed in gym wear rushed toward them. "Coach Keaton, what's going on?" asked Dr. Notrub. "We have trouble, Dr. Notrub. A couple of weirdoes have broken into the college. I was training the football team out on the fieldwhen all of a sudden, two bizarre creatures dropped out of the sky," said the man.
"Bizarre creatures? What did they look like?" asked Dr. Notrub. "One looked like a metallic demon skeleton wielding a scythe. The other was a man dressed in hunting attire and an oversized hat covering his head. He was holding a blunderbuss. Before I could stop them, the hunter one shot some sort of beam from his blunderbuss at the team. It did something horrible to all of them. Slowly, their heads transformed into shrunken heads. It wasn't natural. I ran inside and pulled the fire alarm. The last thing I heard was the hunter commanding them to round up everyone in the college," said Coach Keaton.
Dr. Notrub gasped and looked at Lydia who had a stunned look on her face as well. "It probably wasn't a good idea to pull the fire alarm. With everyone piling out of the classrooms, it will be easier for them to round up everyone," said Dr. Notrub. "Oh no! Look!" panicked a male student pointing down the hallway.
They all looked ahead and saw two burly figures marching toward them. They were dressed in football uniforms. But their heads had been shrunk. Coach Keaton and the students screamed in fear except for Dr. Notrub and Lydia who just stared at them.
"What have they done to the players' handsome faces?" asked Claire shallow as always. "What are we going to do?" asked another female student. "I'll hold them off! Dr. Notrub, get your students to safety," said Coach Keaton charging toward the players like a mad bull.
"Quickly everyone! Back to my classroom!" commanded Dr. Notrub. Lydia, Claire and the other students turned around and ran down the hallway leaving Coach Keaton to fend off the players with the shrunken heads.
Soon enough, Dr. Notrub led his class back into his classroom and shut the door. "We've got to block it quickly!" exclaimed Dr. Notrub. The students started to pile up desks in front of the door. Loud banging came from the other side of the door. "Don't let them in!" yelled Dr. Notrub.
Lydia walked up to Dr. Notrub and whispered, "We've got to do something. That metallic skeleton can only be one thing: Mecha-Reaper!" "Yes. And from what Coach Keaton told us, it seems he's got some sort of Neither- monster with him. But what can we do? We can't reveal to everyone that we're the Spooky Heroes," said Dr. Notrub in a low voice.
Then he noticed Claire had opened a window. "Claire! What are you doing?" he asked. "I'm like totally getting out of here. I for one do not intend to be trapped in here with all of you," said Claire as she started to climb out the window. "We may be trapped in here. But it's much safer in here than out there," said Dr. Notrub. "That's your opinion," said Claire in her snooty tone.
But before she could move anymore, a head-shrunk student suddenly grabbed her from outside. Claire shrieked. Several students rushed to her aid and pulled her out of the head-shrunk student's grasp. One of them closed the windows. "Use the long tables in the back and prop them up against the windows. We can't let them in," said Dr. Notrub. The students followed his orders and then he turned to Lydia.
"We need to get help. We're stuck in a scene reminiscent of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The classic one, not the remake I mean," whispered Dr. Notrub. Then Lydia's face lit up. "We may be trapped in here. But we can use the watches to call Beetlejuice and Jack. They can help us," said Lydia. "Good thinking, Lydia! I'll keep the rest of the students occupied while you call them," said Dr. Notrub turning to the rest of the students. He started to tell them to keep calm. Lydia rolled back the sleeve of her black blouse revealing a digital watch that was embedded in the mouth of a skull. She pressed a button in the right eye socket.
Meanwhile, at 1313 Poe Lane, Beetlejuice in the library, perched on a ladder in front of Dr. Notrub's tall bookshelf filled with horror stories. While he perused the bookshelf, strange shadows crept across it through another of Dr. Notrub's haunted house effects. "Let's see. There's got to be something interesting to read here. Ah! Here's something good: Tales from the Crypt comics. Truly a comedy masterpiece," said Beetlejuice.
Before he could reach the comic, an ear-piercing scream rang out from his wrist. It startled him so much that he accidentally pushed himself away from the bookshelf. "Whoa!" yelled Beetlejuice as the ladder fell backwards and he crashed onto the floor. After he picked himself up, he muttered, "Good thing I'm already dead or that would have killed me."
Then he remembered the screaming. "That's the Blood Red Alert! There must be trouble," he said. He rolled up his sleeve revealing his own skull watch and pressed a button. An image of Lydia appeared in the mouth of the skull. "Lydia, what's wrong?" he asked.
"There's trouble here at the college, BJ. Mecha-Reaper is here with some sort of monster from the Neitherworld. I don't know what it is yet. But it's shrinking the heads of students and turning them into mind-controlled zombies. We need you and Jack to get over here quickly," said Lydia in a whispered voice. "I'm on my way, Lyds. In the meantime, you and the doc try to hold them off," said Beetlejuice. "We can't. They've got us trapped in the classroom with Claire and the other students," said Lydia. "Just hang in there, Lydia. We'll be there soon," said Beetlejuice. Lydia's image vanished from the watch's screen.
'I knew this sort of thing would happen. I know the reason why Dr. Grim sent his goons to attack the college. They're trying to get at Lydia to get to me. Well, this time, they've gone too far,' thought Beetlejuice as rage boiled within him.
"Jack!" called Beetlejuice. In a few moments, the doors of the library opened and Jack rushed in. "I heard the Blood Red Alert. What's the matter?" asked the skeleton. "No time to explain. Lydia and the doc are in trouble at the college. We've got to get over there quick," said Beetlejuice raising his skull watch to his left hand. "Time to go to work. I hope this transport technology works right. After all, Dr. Notrub only recently complete my battle gear," said Jack raising his own skull watch.
"Ready, Jack?" asked Beetlejuice. "Ready, Beetlejuice," said Jack. Then in unison they yelled, "Let's get spooky!" They pressed the buttons in the left eye sockets and instantaneously, they were bathed in glowing blue light.
From the light where Beetlejuice stood, his voice rang out, "Beetlejuice! The ghost with the most! Fright Force Blaster!" The light vanished from around Beetlejuice and he stood wearing a black and white armored suit along with a black and white striped cape and a black and white striped hood covering the top half of his face. His weapon, the Fright Force Blaster, a black metal box was attached to his back and the fingerless gloves attached to it were covering his hands.
Then Jack's voice called, "Jack Skellington! The Pumpkin King! Skeleton Sabers!" The glow around Jack vanished and he stood in his new battle suit. He was covered in pumpkin orange armor. His head was encased in a metal Jack-O-Lantern. His empty eye sockets gazed through the eyeholes of the Jack-O-Lantern and his mouth could be seen from behind its wide scary grin. On his back was a double scabbard containing two swords.
"This armor is really impressive. Dr. Notrub told me that it's lightweight and yet strong enough to resist the mightiest of blows," said Jack. "It's show time, Jack! To the basement!" yelled Beetlejuice as he floated out of the library with Jack running beside him.
As Beetlejuice floated and Jack ran down the stairs to Dr. Notrub's basement laboratory, Beetlejuice called, "Doomie! Rev it up! We've got an emergency!"
Sitting in the center of the laboratory facing the entrance to a tunnel was a green convertible car. It's grill was grinning mouth and it's headlights were eyes. It was sleeping until it heard Beetlejuice call and then it woke up. Beetlejuice and Jack quickly jumped into the front seat of Doomie.
"No time to explain, Doomie. Lydia and Dr. Notrub are in trouble at the college," said Beetlejuice. Doomie nodded and sped off down the tunnel.
"Uh Beetlejuice, aren't we forgetting something?" asked Jack. "We have everything we need," said Beetlejuice. "Did you remember to open the door at the end of the tunnel so we don't crash?" asked Jack. "Uh oh," said Beetlejuice looking ahead. The automatic door at the end of the tunnel wasn't open. Beetlejuice shrieked as his eyes bulged out of their sockets. Jack screamed too.
Beetlejuice quickly turned around and stretched his arm back toward the laboratory. His hand stretched around several corners and pulled on a lever. The automatic door opened and they barely made it out as Doomie soared into the sky. "I must talk to Dr. Notrub about rigging the automatic doors to open whenever Doomie enters the tunnel like they do when the Creep Captor is called. On the bright side, these new flight modifications I built into Doomie work great," said Beetlejuice looking over at Jack.
Jack looked scared stiff. "What's the matter? Does the Pumpkin King have a fear of flying?" asked Beetlejuice. "Let's just say I'm not very fond of flying. Especially after the time I was shot out of the sky on Christmas Eve," said Jack. "Don't worry, Jack. We're not getting shot out of the sky today. I hope," said Beetlejuice. The ghost and the skeleton in their monster car continued on their flight toward the college. They hoped they weren't too late to save Lydia and Dr. Notrub.