Boogeymen II: Teenage Wasteland

by Legend Maker

Halloween is here. The end has come. Who will survive? What truths will be revealed? And most importantly of all...will the door finally be closed? And even if they survive...will the Hive ever be the same? Is it over?...Is it ever?

4. Hilarity

Part 4: 'Hilarity'

Writer's Note: Special guest appearance by my good friend Bobcat. You can probably guess what section he wrote.

"What do you mean, Seemore's dead?" Gizmo blurted out.

"I mean he's dead. As in not alive any more." Flay said quietly. He seemed to have found something immensely fascinating about the floor, because he couldn't seem to stop studying it.

"Dead." Rocko repeated, as if the concept needed absolute clarification.

"Yes. DEAD." Flay said through gritted teeth.

"Dead! Deceased! Passed on! No more! Ceased to be!" Buzz Bomb suddenly blurted out, the muscles around his right eye twitching. "Expired! Gone to meet his maker! A late man! A stiff! Bereft of life! Resting in peace! Pushing up the daisies! Hopped the twig! Kicked the bucket! Shuffled off this mortal coil! Rung down the curtain! Joined the bleeding choir invisible…!"

A metal coil suddenly wrapped around Buzz Bomb's neck and jerked him backwards as Flense grabbed him with his apparatus and slammed Buzz Bomb against the wall, even as another metal tentacle snapped out a blade in front of Buzz Bomb's eye.

"Stop jabbering or I'll add you to that invisible choir…!" Flense snapped.

A rock hand came down on his shoulder.

"Enough. No fighting amongst ourselves." Rocko said. Flense glanced up at Rocko, and then let Buzz Bomb go, as the bee-armored and seemingly not very mentally stable teen scrambled away from the robotics wielding teen.

"So Seemore's dead. Big fucking whoop." Sabotage said where he was leaning against the wall.

"He was our teammate you asshole." Nightwalker said.

"And he was weak enough to be killed by some psycho mystery woman. If you're not tough in this life, you die. Simple as that. And trust me kid, I plan on showing you that exact lesson in great detail." Sabotage said, his eyes narrowing towards Nightwalker.

"Don't think you can…" Nightwalker snapped back as he raised one of his gauntlets.

"I said ENOUGH." Rocko said, stomping between the two of them. "Both of you are missing the point anyway. That Seemore's death raises the exact question of what's going on."

"I thought we thought it was either a hero attack or some overela…elabor…Labrador retriever, uh, too fancy scheme of Blood's to test us." Flense said.

"No…no that isn't it. It's something else." Flay said. "Something bad."

"I agree. Blood was nasty but he wouldn't wholesale slaughter his own drones to try and test us." Gizmo said.

"Sir, ma'am, may this soldier ask Flay a question, sir/ma'am?" Private Hive piped up.

"I told you to knock that off Leonard." Rocko said.

"Uh sorry sir! Ma'am! I mean…"

"Just ask him the question."

"Simon, this woman you say killed Seymore…do you think she was who killed our fellow soldiers back in the hallway?"

"…What?" Flay said.

"Could she be…"

"I heard the question Leonard. But I can't believe you asked it."

"Why?"

"Weren't you paying attention snothead? That woman killed Seemore by trickery. From the body of the Hive guard Flay also saw, it looked like she surprised him as well. Whatever killed those poor snots back in the hallway wasn't a sneak clever psycho. It was something larger…more powerful…more savage…" Gizmo said, his voice dropping off a bit, as if a thought occurring to him was distracting him.

"One thing that keeps nagging at me though: the girl looked familiar. I'd SEEN her somewhere, maybe just once, and I…I don't know. But I saw her SOMEWHERE." Flay said. "Argh, it keeps escaping me, like when you can't remember the name of an actor in a movie…"

The look that had been in Gizmo's eyes suddenly covered his whole face. Apparently, he'd had a small sort of epiphany. At the time though, nobody noticed.

"Familiar women and mutilated bodies are one though, but even a pack of psycho killers doesn't explain what the hell happened to that hallway." Nightwalker added.

"And quite frankly we'd be fucking morons to hang around and find out." Flense said. "Let's resume our escape, shall we?"

"Hold on sirs." One of the nameless Hive guards said. "We just sent a fair amount of our number ahead to check the other hallway Flay didn't scout. We can't just leave them sirs, not with what's happening…"

"Really? Then you say here and say hello to whatever is stalking around in this fucking dump. I am out of here. Anyone who wants to hang around with these worthless drones…" Sabotage snapped.

"Hey asshole! I've lost friends to whatever is happening here!" Another hive drone yelled.

"Oh really. You forgot to provide the part where I give a fuck." Sabotage replied.

The Hive drove decided to make Sabotage care by going for his gun.

Wrong choice.

As the Hive guard cocked back the hammer on the automatic, it proceeded to snap off.

And that wasn't the end, as Sabotage apparently sent another surge of his probability altering power at the guard, which caused some kind of failure in the gun that resulted in it blowing up in the drone's hand. So to speak: the hammer snapping off had caused the drone's to lose his grip, so the gun had actually just slipped out of his hand and probably saved the guard from serious injury. It still burned though, as the drone yelled and recoiled, clutching his injured hand.

More guns came out.

"I wouldn't." Sabotage said, and smiled nastily.

"Cord…" Rocko said.

"Stay out of this bitch. It isn't your business." Sabotage said. "Go ahead. Make my day."

The guns only stayed on him for two more seconds before they lowered.

"Exactly." Sabotage said. "Now you guys can all go to hell as far as I'm concerned. I'm blowing this popsicle stand." Sabotage said.

"Awwwwww, leaving so soon?"

The voice came out of nowhere. Literally. Which didn't exactly help the jangled nerves of the HIVE refugees, as they glanced around nervously, trying to discover the source.

Flense whispered, "Anyone hear where that came from?"

Buzz Bomb shivered. "I… I never really thought anyone was REALLY out to get me… I mean sure, in a metaphorical sense, but…"

Rocko was quiet, but forceful. "SHUT IT."

"Yes'm." Buzz Bomb whimpered and was thankful that his armor had what amounted to a catheter built into it.

Sabotage looked pretty damn unhappy at the sudden change (and how it took away the fact he had been getting back in charge), though he didn't seem to have any proper words for it at the moment. Nightwalker was as stoic as usual.

"Hey there!" The voice suddenly yelled. Everyone jumped, except Private Hive, who turned and swung the shield in the direction of the voice.

And proceeded to give Flay a resounding whack on the head. Flay collapsed, not expecting the blow and hence knocked cold.

"What the…!"

"He took out Flay!"

"That was our teammate Leonard you crud'n moron!" Gizmo said.

"Oh no! Simon! Sorry!" Private Hive said.

The hallway echoed with laughter. Everyone jumped again.

Ever the soldier, Captain Hive recovered the fastest and started barking orders. "Enough! Drones, formation Omicron. Hold your fire until I say so. Everyone else bunch together. We are not gonna panic and let ourselves be split up. Someone wake Simon up! Move out."

The Drones' training took over, and all four of them moved into a circle, each covering a different direction with their guns. It was a logical formation, especially since they had situated themselves between the relative safety between Buzz Bomb and Rocko. Against most enemies, especially normal humans, it would have worked.

"Well well well. Looks like new suckers. And such disciplined suckers at that!" The voice seemed to boom from every direction so loudly that Drone Jenkins wondered whether he was being shaken badly or if his teeth were just chattering.

Another drone was sure that he saw something in the shadows. Something pale and fast. He fired a hurried shot from his weapon, the futuristic type of energy gun that Brother Blood seemed to prefer (though not many of the drones actually had them at the moment, it being a temporary base). Instead of putting it all into one shot, he switched it to pulse mode, sending a hail of tiny energy bolts into the shadows. They all missed judging by the laughter that followed, but they illuminated the mysterious figure for a second.

"Sheesh, that's why I hate you military grunts. You drill and train them to follow orders, and what happens? They panic and waste a clip of ammo on a guy who isn't there. You can help with that problem, by the by."

Gizmo was the only one in the group of HIVE students to recognize the figure, as it interrupted his attempt to wake up Flay.

"Betelgeuse?"

"Betelgeuse?" One of the drones echoed

Flense looked incredulous at said echo. "What's a Betelgeuse?"

"Well, I s-saw a movie called Beetlejuice… he came out if you said his name three times. That was a good one, but a little confusing. I saw on a website that his name is spelled like the star, not the title. I mean, why bother for a movie? No one's gonna see how it's spelled anyway. A book maybe, but not a movie…" The drone stuttered.

Private Hive slapped his hand across the chatty Jenkins. "Shut your trap soldier! I want better fire discipline from all four of you Drones! Everyone, we're going towards the gymnasium training room. From there it isn't too far to an emergency exit. Move out! Drones, earn those paychecks and take point!" There was some grumbling among the ranks, especially the one who was technically in charge (known as the Sarge, no surprise there) but all the drones had to yield to the commands of the H.A.E.Y.P unit and hence the grumbling was cut off by Private Hive's glare.

As the group made their way towards the gym, one of the drones whispered to Jenkins,

"So you really think you saw something out of a movie?"

"Yeah, for a sec. But he wouldn't be here 'cause he's not real, like Spider-Man."

The movie buff Drone heard a voice to his left say, "What was his name again?

"Betelgeuse."

"Wha?"

"It's Betelgeuse, Larry!"

The guard who actually was to his left said, "Uh, I didn't say anything."

Unfortunately for everybody involved, Larry had a bad tendency to whisper when he was scared. So, instead of Larry, Jenkins heard the mystery voice saying, "What are you doing dipshit, mumbling? I couldn't understand what you said."

"BETELGEUSE BETELGEUSE BETELGEUSE, YOU DEAF MORON!"

Jenkins didn't even have time to contemplate just what he'd done before the top half of him exploded, revealing a gray skinned man in a black and white pinstripe suit. His filthy teeth were exposed by a manic grin. "Man, getting summoned just gets easier and easier." Betelgeuse removed himself from Jenkins' lower half like it was a pair of ill-fitting pants. "Or else you mortals just keep getting dumber and dumber."

"What the FUCK!" Flense yelled, goggling at the creature that had so suddenly and messily appeared. His expression of surprise was shared by everyone…except Gizmo, still crouched by Flay's body as he tried to revive him. For some reason, he seemed a little less surprised.

Little being the key word.

"Holy CRUD! IT IS YOU!" Gizmo yelled.

"Well at least one of you ain't so dumb. Good thing: that head would make an awful ringing if it was hollow." Betelgeuse chuckled.

"Check this out for dumb, spleezeball!" Gizmo said, and immediately started chanting, "Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Bemph!"

As the boy genius was about to utter the rest of the unsummoning spell, his mouth simply disappeared. It hadn't been sealed shut… his skull had simply been rearranged to do without.

Betelgeuse laughed. "What kid, did ya really think it'd be THAT easy?"

---

A triumph: Jinx had made it back to her room without anyone seeing her. Of course, once she'd gotten there there'd been a new problem. At least it didn't involve psycho killers who put Harry Houdini to shame.

As mentioned before, Jinx's body had gone through some changes, and as a result, so had her costume: nothing drastic but noticeable. Her small platform shoes had been taken away and replaced with large, knee high 'Goth-Boots' for one (She had made a special order for a boot manufacturer to make her these boots for Christmas, but they had seemed a size too big, until she had 'finished growing up' as it was, then they seemed to fit just fine, though it may have been due to her stockings). With her body change she had found herself ripping all her old striped tights, and hence she bought some high thigh stockings. They weren't the same but they would do for now until she could go to the Hero/Villain store and buy more (Yes there was such a store; they did custom costumes for masked patrons. The store was a safehouse for both heroes and villains as neither was allowed to attack the other or they would not be allowed their equipment. They didn't sell everything: things like doomsday machines or PDEM's, which would be the ultimate weapons in both arsenals, were unavailable, but things like custom communicators were. She remembered Gizmo had told her, amongst all the shouts of 'snot' and 'crud', that he had seen Robin of the Titans down at the store on the odd occasion).

The rest of her costume had remained the same, or rather in the same vein; she had made a few alterations. In the constant battles with the Titans, the purple markings on the black part of her dress had a bad habit of coming off, or the buttons snapping off, so she had taken what was left of her dresses and had them altered (while she was pretty incompetent at that kind of stuff, Scorcher seemed willing to help as according to her she went through a similar thing when she was younger. If Scorcher hadn't been a teacher, she'd have made a good seamstress). Her costume now had no buttons or markings on the front (which it'd once had: they'd been concealed), as it was now made to just slip over the head, though there was a small collection of strings on the back to gather the excess material, much like a corset but not so tight. Also, to protect what dignity she had left, she had been forced to remove the cloth on the shoulders so that her shoulders and collarbones were exposed and the purple cloth flared out to the side a little bit before sloping down. What dignity what she protecting then? The dignity she would risk losing if she hadn't because with her new larger form, her old costume style had a habit of riding up and exposing her lower half, and she really didn't want that, especially with people like Hermes about. (She should have called himself Hentai, for all his perversion).

But we've gotten sidetracked again.

The problem was, the only dress she could access had been in the suitcase, the suitcase the Santa wacko had hit with his axe. As a result, her dress now sported a long rip up one side, showing off the top of her stocking and the strap from the garter belt that was holding it up. But she could live with that, as she swiftly dressed, put up her hair (it was force of habit), and left her room to find out what the heck was going on.

At least her headache had faded.

But of course we had a new problem, once again due to body changes. Jinx had been hoping the increase in the size of her thighs would also make running a little easier, as she dashed along the hallway, past where she had killed the nutcase, and turning down the way Seemore had come from before he'd gone to his doom. But no such luck there. While her hips and thighs were now large because of bone structure rather than fat (unlike, say, Sophie Mathews), it didn't mean they were filled with muscle either, and hence with all the running, she found herself stopping to catch her breath.

"Gotta stop drinking beer... Next year… Some when." She gasped, slowing down her breathing. She did a stretch or three to limber up and continue running.

She did that for a while.

And she was continually struck at how empty the Hive was. That had been a blessing while she was nude, but it was a curse now as she wanted to know what the heck was going on. But the whole place seemed deserted. It was like a damn horror movie.

Heck, considering what had happened, it was a damn horror movie (though Jinx had no idea how right she was), because it seemed that she had been picked to be the damn fan service.

There are several archetypes in horror movies: The lead male, the one who usually survives but sometimes doesn't, who is generally charismatic. The lead female, sometimes perky, sometimes upbeat, and in the history of horror movies has more chance of surviving than the men. The comedian, something rather self explanatory, someone who joked around a lot, those guys normally died early on. And then there was the fan service, some dull busty woman who would end up running around in their underwear, sometimes because they wanted to and sometimes because their clothes were 'conveniently' ripped off by a monster or object in their escape. There were others too: the innocent was usually a young person, often a teenager, who had their title because they were not very sinful in any respect that counted in those films. The jock or student, which was self-clarifying. The enforcer, which would be someone like a guard or a police officer, and finally the non-believer, who was someone who refused to acknowledge that something was happening even when the proof was in front of them. They usually found out the hard way.

And seeing as Jinx had already been chased around nude and was now wearing a dress that has conveniently ripped up one side, she had figured out what position she played in this. Hell, she'd probably be in her underwear by the end of this.

Or not. Not if she found her fellow students. People never traveled in groups in horror films, so she'd break that trend…

Faint noises were catching her ear, though she couldn't place them: the makeshift base was a mishmash of different kinds of architecture: the walls were as thin as paper in one section and virtually soundproof the next…

Of course, she had to find her friends first. And considering the way things were going, as she turned down a hallway whose ceiling was covered with old water pipes, most of which were now just there because people were too lazy to remove them, that didn't seem to have the best chance for success…

What was that noise…with the altering sound states of the base it could just be the building settling or it could be gunfire and Jinx wouldn't have a clue which one…

Hell, she'd have expected at least to run into one of the many nameless soldiers Blood employed!

There was a large door coming up to her right, but she saw no keypad: it was one way and hence impregnable to her, she'd have to keep going and hope she found another door…

Or one of her friends…

Or anyone at all…

"God damn it!" Jinx thought out loud. "WHERE IS EVERYBODY?"

The door exploded off its hinges, stopping Jinx with a scream as the huge metal door fell to the ground in front of her with a resounding crash.

No…not just the door.

She supposed it could have been one of the Hive drones once: now it was just a shattered, blackened skeleton with clumps of flesh and other unidentifiable tissues still clinging to it, a barely on arm holding a crushed gun. Whatever had hit the door had apparently hit him as well, pasting his remains to the surface of it even as the door was snapped off its moorings.

Jinx put a hand to her mouth as she looked at the ruined body.

And then she heard it.

"Hivvvvveeeeeee…"

A low, snarling growl, spitting hell and death and the sound of rending flesh and bone in her ear.

And then it stepped through the door, the massive foot coming down on the remains and squashing them flat, as Jinx backed up, her hand gripping her mouth so hard she almost broke her jaw.

It turned to look at her.

Standing roughly nine foot tall and clad entirely in black leather, the figure was massive, big enough to put Wilby to shame when he was in his transformed state, the leather covering everything except the head. If you could call it that. It was more like a grotesque play upon what a head should look like, making a hollow mockery of all that was once human. A head devoid of hair, the skin damaged, ruined, almost… lumpy. One eye was sewn shut, the skin above and below the eye stitched together, while the other stared out, a yellowish pupilless white. All the skin around its mouth had been pulled away, revealing the gums and surprisingly white teeth of such a gruesome being. Its arms were clad in the same leathery substance that covered the main body, but the right shoulder and the area around the neck was bare, showing large, tube like, purple, pulsing veins on its shoulder and back.

The right arm had a massive weapon, a rocket launcher of some sort, slung over its shoulder, currently pointing towards the ground, and as it saw Jinx, it raised its other arm and opened its palm.

For a crazy moment she thought that it was going to produce a Shimmer strand, the coils of energy that her enemy Savior wielded…but it was nothing that refined, as its palm split open, revealing a bruised purple tentacle, that almost seemed to sniff the air before sliding back into the hand.

Jinx looked at the beast's face as it let out a low, slow growl, as she finally remembered where she had seen it before.

"Hhiiivvvveeee…." It growled.

"Oh shit." Was all Jinx could reply with.

The Nemesis.

---

The chips were down, the shit had hit the fan, the cows weren't coming home, the farm was in danger of being sold and the cliché mill was overheating from too much use. Jenkins was dead, Larry was shell-shocked after seeing his best friend explode and turn into a zombie ghost thing, and the super villains were too stunned by what had happened to Gizmo to respond.

As far as the drone Chan was concerned, this was his time to be a hero. Even as Betelgeuse tormented the silenced Gizmo, he leveled his laser rifle at the back of the monster's head. He didn't know why everyone was obsessed with this thing's name or where it had come from, but as God was his witness he was going to deal with the zombie bastard who'd killed his teammate.

Especially since Jenkins had owed him fifty dollars.

He set the gun for full auto and pulled the trigger. Instead of the familiar report of his rifle, he felt something soft and vibrating. He glanced down at the gun and did a double take. He was trying to pull the nonexistent trigger of a black cat. The cat purred harder as Chan dropped it and reached for his belt. The cat walked around him in a lazy circle before running off into the darkness.

Betelgeuse shot him that goddamned annoying grin. "Man, you guys are slow in the head. I mean, you live in the same friggin' place as Superman and you actually bother to use a gun on somebody with superpowers?"

Still determined to kill Betelgeuse, Chan wrapped his hand around one of his fragmentation grenades he kept at his side. "Oh shut up. I'm sick of you goddamn metahumans and your shit. You think you're so damned clever 'cause you made a black cat on Halloween and now you're gonna make some lame joke about bad luck."

Betelgeuse never stopped grinning. "What, a cat isn't bad luck?"

"Hell no! That's just a superstition!"

"Then explain why you grabbed the blowfish on your belt instead of the grenade."

Chan didn't have the time to ask "What blowfish?" before the burning started to travel up his arm and he fell to the ground. He had the misfortune to land face first on the expanding former grenade and his fellows were spared a scream of pain as the poison made his throat swell shut.

Flense was backing up, having no idea what to do.

Then movement near him startled him, and he lashed out. He only succeeding in scaring the hell out of Mittens, who had wandered in to look at the noise and again found himself nearly being killed: apparently he hadn't learned from Flay. Even as the kitten ran away again, Flense felt an arm going around his shoulder.

"Eh, anyone who hates kittens and good fashion can't be all bad." Betelgeuse commented, suddenly standing next to Flense with his arm around the teen like he was his best buddy. The student recoiled with horror, and then Flense rolled out of the zombie's grip and ordered his tendrils to form into a blade. One swipe later and Betelgeuse was minus a head. For a moment, he was surprised that he had just killed a man who had laughed off the Drones' weapons.

Then he realized that he hadn't decapitated Betelgeuse; he had killed a Drone wearing a suit just like Betelgeuse's. Larry. How the drone's uniform had transformed into the striped suit was a mystery, but it had done so.

"…Aw no." Flense said, his voice strangely poignant. It didn't last.

"Great Caesar's Toast!" The last living drone, known among the group as the Sarge, was instantly in Flense's face. "What in the name of Gibbley Giblets did you think you were doing?" Flense found himself facing down the business end of the drone's shotgun. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't blast off your face right here and now!"

Before Flense could tell Sarge to go screw himself, Private Hive laid a hand on the Sarge's shoulder. "Stand down, soldier. That dead bastard pulled a trick on us. It's not Flense's fault."

"But it's obvious! The enemy has obviously used some kind of sinister brainwashing ray on Flense! What other reason could there be?"

The Private answered, "Flense screwed up. How's that for a reason?" Hive shot Flense a slightly annoyed glare, as though he was struggling between the knowledge that it wasn't Flense's fault, but fighting down his deep-down devotion to his subordinates. "Now put that gun down."

Sarge paused. "I find myself torn. On the one hand, I am being directly ordered by a superior officer to not blow your face off. On the other hand, if I don't, then this snot nosed metahuman freak is gonna have a bigger body count than me! And that just won't do!"

As Sarge pondered his options, Gizmo and Buzz Bomb were both running around in panicky circles. The former because his mouth was gone, the latter because… well, that's what he did. Nightwalker was trying to find something to shoot, while Rocko was trying to…find something to punch, pretty much ignoring the little drama as it unfolded.

As with a single motion, Private Hive relieved Sarge of his rifle and leveled it at his running teammates. "BOTH OF YOU STOP IT RIGHT NOW OR ELSE I'LL SHOOT YOU!"

The pair paused.

"Hey, why am I afraid? My armor's bulletproof!" Buzz Bomb said.

"Because if you don't then I'll kick your ass, and we both know I can do it."

Buzz Bomb whimpered, "I'll be good."

Hive felt an ice cold hand trace along his back. "Well well, aren't you large and in charge."

It took Private Hive a lot of self-control to stop from spinning around and blasting the teammate he knew Betelgeuse had maneuvered behind him. "All right, you've proven that you can attack us at will without any danger to yourself, monster. What do you want?"

Sarge cried out, "Look out, sir!" An instant later, the Drone tackled his commander out of the way and took the blade meant for Hive to the chest. At least, Hive thought it was a blade at first. Closer inspection revealed that it was a sharpened hockey stick, and Betelgeuse was wearing a matching white mask.

Private Hive was instantly at Sarge's side. "Are you okay?"

"My only regret is that I died last, so that I was forced to live through the horror of losing my entire squad." With a death rattle, Sarge gave up the ghost. Hive suddenly felt tears rise to his eyes as the enormity of the sacrifice that had been bestowed upon him.

Betelgeuse flipped the mask up and shot the somber Private Hive a sadistic grin. "Now how's that for a Hat Trick?"

"But mister Monstrous Zombie Guy who I really would like not to kill me, a hat trick is three. You killed four drones." Buzz Bomb said. The bee-man instantly found the hockeystick at his throat. "Yeah, but um, four is better! It's a baker's hat trick! Yeah, that's it! Don't kill me."

Betelgeuse snorted derisively. "Oh, I'm not going to kill you. No sport to it. After all, a coward dies a thousand times, but a brave man only once. No, I'm going to kill the bravest among you."

Rocko tackled the gloating ghoul. "Here I am you bastard!" Rocko smashed him into the wall and cocked her fist back, ready to pound him flat. Unfortunately, Betelgeuse had used a bit of dark magic to replace himself with a very, very large stick of dynamite. The resulting explosion blew Rocko through the opposite wall. Stumbling to her feet, Rocko stepped through the hole she had made, only to get flattened by a large weight with "sixteen tons" written upon it.

"Well this just keeps getting better and better." Nightwalker muttered.

Betelgeuse filed his nails and feigned boredom as he sat atop the weight that had buried Rocko. "Nope, you're not it either. You aren't brave, you're just fearless, which means you're crazy. And if I wanted to kill crazy people, I wouldn't have bothered to travel to an alternate dimension to do it. Plenty of them back home. No, I want the Captain America ripoff."

Private Hive was on the verge of tears. He was hopelessly outmatched, and four of his soldiers had died, one of them to save him. He knew that the rest of the Hive students didn't care. As far as they were concerned, four red shirted cannon fodder troops had just died, and little more. But Hive remembered what Brother Blood had told him during his training.

"You have no real powers of your own. I recruited you because you have all the qualities of a good commander. In simulations, you have no problem putting your men in hazardous situations and getting them out alive. None of the others can do this; they treat the Drones as little more than shields. You on the other hand care about them. In any battle with Drones present, you are in charge. I trust that none of them will die needlessly."

Private Hive snarled and faced Betelgeuse. "Why target me?"

"I don't like people who think that they're in charge of something chaotic. You think you can control soldiers in battle like it was a friggin' computer game. Well, I just proved that you're imperfect. I know your mind. I've read it cover to cover." He chuckled to himself. "Of course, I couldn't do that back home. But hell, this place is just lousy with magical energy I can tap into." Betegeuse shot Gizmo a sideways look. "Speaking of which, someone should wipe out your brain with soap. Or at least give you a thesaurus; you're getting really repetitive really fast. Go ahead, have your mouth back." Reality responded to his whim, and Gizmo was a whole… well, more like half man again.

The boy genius was too busy breathing again to think about trying to unsummon their tormentor again. Besides, he already "unmouthed" me. I'm not gonna try anything else that'll make him mad.

With that done, Betelgeuse turned back to Hive, who suddenly felt a tightness in his chest. He wondered if it was a heart attack, but concluded that it was grief and rage. He charged Betelgeuse and roared his frustration. "I am in control! I can rip you apart myself if I have to! I have CONTROL!"

Betelgeuse grabbed him by the throat, stopping him instantly. "You stupid little puppet. None of you can do anything to me."

"Oh really?" Sabotage said, as he appeared next to Betelgeuse. "I'm afraid you're wrong. You've fucked up the wimps enough, time to die. And that's what's gonna happen when I rework probability so that your powers turn on you." Sabotage said as if it was easy, though his thoughts betrayed otherwise. It's gonna be a strain, but if I try hard enough…

"I am rubber, you are glue, whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you."

Sabotage collapsed instantly as probability started doing a number on him. For an instant, his pancreas was a vase filled with petunias. The next his hair was made out of the abstract concept of not having hair, which hurt his brain at least as much as it did his scalp. For more than twenty seconds this went on until finally he fell unconscious and lay there shivering. Fortunately, he was fully himself again.

Hive choked, "How… but his powers can't do that…"

"Not normally, but I turned 'em up really high. Don't worry, he's fine. Though if you morons survive this, have him get that lump on his left kidney looked at."

"…Attack! Attack you cowards! If he's just gonna keep picking us off one by one like this, you aren't any better off hiding from him!" Private Hive shouted. Only Flense seemed to see the logic in this: Gizmo was keeping out of it, Buzz Bomb was still running in circles, Rocko was trying to shove the weight off herself, Flay was still out cold, and Nightwalker had vanished, which wasn't hard due to the poor lighting of the wide hallway. That just left him, and lashed out with his tendrils. They seemed to work, cutting Betelgeuse into bits. Most of him hit the ground instantly. Unfortunately for Hive, the arms remained where they were, floating in space and holding him off the ground.

"How the hell? What…you let me cut you, didn't you?" Flense said.

Betelgeuse's severed head laughed heartily, despite the lack of lungs. "Yup. Anything for a good pun. Of course, I wish I could tell a joke without going to pieces."

The assembled Hive students swore they could hear crickets.

"Heh, you think I'm gonna waste "A" material on this crowd?"

Flense snarled in rage and lashed out again, but the head zipped out of the way and swooped up to Flense's face.

"You ain't gonna get ahead THAT way!' Betelgeuse said, and headbutted Flense right between the eyes, causing him to stumble back and collapse, holding his face. Betelgeuse chuckled and then turned back to Private Hive…

And suddenly found a small round tube pressed against his head. His eyes slid over to look at Nightwalker, who had emerged once more.

"Oh look, the first to be weeded out of the Warriors remake shows his face. Uh, so to speak." Betelgeuse said. "You know that won't do a damn thing."

"Maybe not, but no sense being negative." Nightwalker replied. He felt oddly brave. Nothing quite like having no hope at all to make you feel invincible. Nothing he can do to me that's worse than what he was going to do anyway.

"So you think you're something?"

"I think I'm a lot of things. And one thing is that I know your jokes just plain sucked."

"Oh look, a critic! Why don't you put your money where your mouth is!" Betelgeuse said. One of his disembodied hands popped of Betelgeuse's still floating arms, leaving Private Hive floating by one hand, as the hand waved at Nightwalker.

And…nothing happened. And that fact even surprised Betelgeuse.

"…You have something extremely rare there kid. A gray magic field." Betelgeuse said, sounding serious for the first time. "Where in all the realms did you get something some beings have spent aeons failing to get?"

"It's not where you go, it's who you know." Nightwalker replied. "And since your magic doesn't work, how do you know this won't work as well?" Nightwalker said, indicating his gauntlet and its possible effectiveness.

Betelgeuse chuckled, back in the game.

"You know, you all have secrets, some damn big ones, and you're one of the nominees for the biggest. With what you hide, I'd expect you to be a bit more humble. Hey Handy, illuminate the situation for the clowns left standing!"

And the hand that had failed to enchant Nightwalker flew at him, and before Nightwalker could react it was on his shoulder. Nightwalker recoiled away, trying to dislodge it, but it already had a grip, and Nightwalker realized with horror what it was trying to do.

"No!" He screamed, as the hand tore and yanked at his helmet, everyone watching as the black-clad teen stumbled down the hallway. But the hand had too good a grip, and it gave one final titanic yank…

"NO!"

The helmet clattered and rolled to the floor, and the Hive saw a flash of red hair just before Nightwalker dashed into the shadows, vanishing into the dark. Footsteps could be heard as he ran down the hall, doubly back the way they had come.

Private Hive took advantage of the halved grip to break free, using his shield to bash the arm down. The limb seemed to whimper pathetically as it ran back to its owner, who had for the most part pulled himself together. Betelgeuse screwed the arm back on as Hive charged him again. This time, he managed to hit. Unfortunately, he was bounced back. Betelgeuse's eternal grin somehow grew wider. "What part of me being rubber didn't you understand? Just give in to that feeling of hopelessness that's gnawing at your chest."

Hive attacked again, this time bringing his shield down on Betelgeuse's head like a sledgehammer. Again, it just bounced off. The pain in his chest was getting worse all the time, and he was starting to wonder if there was more than emotion behind it. As the hiding and down Hive members looked on, Private Hive hammered Betelgeuse again and again. There was absolutely no effect on him whatsoever, but Hive kept trying.

Again, the zombie laughed. "Well, you know, I really have to hand it to you. The entire time we've fought, you never gave up, and you were in control of your fear the entire time. You have a stronger mind than I thought. Congrats!"

Hive smirked as he doubled over from his exhaustion. "Heh. Looks like I was in control the whole time after all!"

"Yeah, and it annoys me. Time to cheat." Betelgeuse said, and vanished. He suddenly reappeared next to Private Hive wearing a military uniform.

"Chant along soldier! I don't know but it's been said!" Betelgeuse said, marching in place.

"I don't know but it's been said!" Private Hive chanted, unable to stop himself.

"I'm a prick that should be dead!"

"I'm a prick that should be dead!"

"Since I can't do my job thus far!"

"Since I can't do my job thus far!"

"I invoke the demon Altazar!"

"I invoke the demon AltazAHHHHHHH!" Private Hive screamed as Flense punched him in the mouth to cut him off.

"Henh, another cheater. Good thing I'm a hypocrite as well!" Betelgeuse said, and used his final act of puppetry to whack Flense down the hallway again. He landed at the feet of some very surprised returning drones.

"Well look the calvary's arriving, but too late. The spell I put on you, that summoning you did, well Altazar demands a certain tribute. Like the eating of your small intestine. By which point I'll be gone anyway. Sucker!"

"No!" Hive said, as one of the drones helped Flense up in the distance.

"Yep! So enjoy your last moments, because he's here! No wait he's not! Or maybe he is? Or maybe he's over here?" Betelgeuse said as he zipped around Private Hive, whose eyes and head darted around, trying to find if what Betelgeuse said was true, his chest pain getting truly terrible…

But he kept looking, and slowly Betelgeuse came to a stop, as if amazed.

"I'm not afraid of your damn demon! Bring him on!" Hive snapped.

"…Nothing to bring. There is no demon. I think you're the first one not to give in to that trick."

"…Hah. I told you. Only I control my mind." Private Hive said.

Betelgeuse shook his head. "No. You controlled your mind, but your body is another matter. I clogged your heart with enough bacon grease to choke a rhino five minutes ago. I'm surprised you didn't faint earlier. But since you decided to be nice and prolong the damage so much…" Betelgeuse said, and then was suddenly right in Private Hive's face. "BOO!"

That final shock was enough to induce the heart attack Betelgeuse had been angling for. With a groan and a final collapse, Private Hive was dead.

Betelgeuse summoned up a cowboy hat and put it atop his head. "Well, my work here is done. Now I'm going riding off into the sunset after a quick tour of the strip clubs this burg has to offer."

"What! You have us at your mercy! Why the snot don't you finish us off?" Gizmo found himself blurting out.

The grin faded again, and for the second time that night, Betelgeuse was completely serious. "Momma-juice always taught me to leave leftovers for people bigger and meaner than me."

Buzz Bomb whimpered, "Bigger and meaner? Than YOU?"

"What, if you don't believe me, check out the next paragraph!"

---

The Nemesis.

Scourge of Resident Evil, a beast that didn't die, no matter how many times you shot it with a gun, a shotgun, a magnum, a grenade launcher, a mini-gun, a rocket launcher, anything: like the song went, he got knocked down but he got up again. A creature that was so stupidly strong that he didn't die when he'd been shot with a rail cannon three times. Shrugging off being lit on fire, splashed with acid, blasted, shot, exploded, rail-cannoned and anything in between, it would chase you relentlessly. If Jinx remembered correctly from Gizmo's long rant on the subject many moons ago, which she hoped she didn't, the only thing that killed the Nemesis for good was a nuke.

And she didn't have a nuke.

Hell, she didn't even have a knife.

And in a moment she wasn't going to have a head, as the Nemesis was suddenly on her, moving far far faster then anything its size had a right to be, as it thrust out its left hand to crush Jinx's skull between its fingers.

---

"Nope, that's a little too big for me to handle, so I'll just be on my way and…" Betelgeuse said.

"Mr. Juice!" Came a new voice, and Betelgeuse turned around to find, much to his surprise, one of the returned drones. But far from being scared, he actually looked excited.

"My god it is you! The real deal! I love your movie! It was the best comedy film made in the last fifty years!"

"Well I don't like to brag…wait yes I do! Ha ha ha! You have taste kid! I'd kill you anyway, but as I said I'm going."

"Please, before you go, give me your autograph!"

"Ah sure why not? No sense giving that fool Keaton all the credit!" Betelgeuse said as he conjured a pen as the drone produced a piece of paper.

"Give one to my girlfriend and her sister too! They'll never believe me!"

"Sure thing! Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betel…!" Betelgeuse stopped dead as he realized what he was doing.

"Geuse!" The drone finished.

"…And here I was thinking that Mxyzptlk was just a moron." Betelgeuse said, and with a poof he was gone.

Instantly, the weight vanished off Rocko, and she got up with a lunge, as the drone let out a slow breath, not believing what he had done had worked.

"…Fuck. I thought I had some brass ones." Flense said, unable to believe what the drone had done, as the drone knelt down by Private Hive and checked for a pulse. He shook his head sadly at the result.

"…Wow. Thanks man." Gizmo said.

"…Sure. After all, not like the great HIVE could have done anything." The drone said bitterly, as he got up. Rocko strolled over, even as Sabotage began to stir.

"…Ok. What just happened?" She asked.

"You got me. I don't have a fucking clue." Flense said, even as Buzz Bomb finally collapsed from his running.

"Make the world stop spinning." He said.

"I don't know what's going on. I just work here." Another drone said, as he knelt by the still unconscious Flay as he uncorked smelling salts.

"It looked to me like the creature from the film Beetlejuice just came to life and killed several of our fellows, including Leonard." The supposed autograph seeking drone said.

"But that's impossible! It's a damn movie! It's inconsee-see-sieve…impossible!" Flense snapped.

"Uh…" Gizmo muttered, and everyone turned to him.

"You have something to say Mikron?" Rocko said.

"Uh yeah…that impossible thing? Uh…it might not be so…impossible."

---

Escape seemed impossible as well.

But while Jinx's new body may have slowed her down a bit, it didn't mean she had forgotten all her old tricks. And while panic sometimes clouded reaction, sometimes it also provided a massive jolt just when it was needed.

As all the Nemesis got was a handful of Jinx's hair, and not a firm enough grip on it to hold her as well, as she ducked and then flipped backwards and away from the monster.

But it came after her, seemingly unencumbered by the fact that one of its arms was occupied with holding a weapon, moving at speeds she could barely believe, as Jinx frantically bounded back and forth across the hallway, using the walls where she could to stay one step away from the Nemesis, leaping and flipping and spinning and…

Getting whacked across the body with the rocket launcher as the Nemesis used it as a club, sending pain spiking through Jinx's form as she flew through the air and slammed back first into the wall. At least she didn't hit her head again though.

"Hivvvvvveeeee…" The Nemesis growled as it approached her, though for some reason it was moving slower now.

Jinx recovered fast, as she started getting up. She had to move, get some distance before the Nemesis started taking her seriously, it was her only chance…

And then she looked down the hallway she had come from and her eyes widened.

The open door she had gone through was closed now. And she doubted the same trick would work twice when it came to dealing with stubborn doors.

And the Nemesis blocked her other way.

She was trapped.

Her palms became sweaty as her mind raced with ideas and thoughts. She could feel her heartbeat speed up as her brain dumped even more adrenaline into her system, her hands shaking and her eyes darting from place to place. But even all that would be no help against the creature: even a hex blast or two would probably just make it madder. Had she escaped the clutches of that lunatic Santa only to be killed now, by a creature with no values at all, just an unadulterated need for senseless violence and destruction, a need to make people suffer because that is what it was told to do?

It seemed like her only fate. She couldn't go through the door she'd come in from, and there was nothing in front of her except hulking monster and ceiling pipe…

Wait…

The tentacle began to emerge from the palm again as the Nemesis approached.

It'd be risky, but she had no choice.

Despite a lack of expression, the Nemesis was clearly surprised when Jinx got up and charged at him, but that didn't slow his reflexes an iota, as he raised his arm and lunged for Jinx…

Who broke to her right at the last second, ran up against and up the wall before leaping off it and actually landing on the Nemesis' outstretched arm before she leapt off immediately, grabbing a pipe just above the creature and swinging over its head as she flung herself forward, flipping and landing on her feet and taking off at a full sprint.

In the tight corridor, the Nemesis had some trouble turning around, and as a result Jinx got several precious seconds to make distance between the two of them before the creature was once again facing her, growling.

"Hive!"

And then it swung up its rocket launcher.

Which Jinx happened to see because she had chosen that time to glance behind her. Her eyes bulged: it was going to shoot at her!

…It was going to fire a rocket…

The Nemesis pulled the trigger.

And Jinx leapt, spun, and fired a hex blast.

The rocket took about ¾ of a second to fully ignite and blast out of its tube…which allowed the hex blast to meet the rocket just as it emerged.

Bad luck.

The rocket blew up in the Nemesis's face, and it bellowed as the fire and shrapnel slammed into it. A piece ricocheted off the wall next to Jinx in a brief burst of sparks, drawing a brief shriek from her, as the Nemesis reeled, purple blood spraying from a neck wound, the massive creature going down on one knee as the liquid exploded from the injury…

And then slowed…

"Hiveeeeeeeee…" The creature hissed, and Jinx realized it was already healing up, the blood flow already stopping, and within a second or two it'd be on her again…

Jinx looked up and fired several hex blasts into the ceiling at two different places, and then turned and ran for it as the ceiling exploded and rained down debris in the hallway, debris the Nemesis would have to circumvent. That should buy her a few more seconds…hopefully, as she turned and ran down the hallway.

"HIVVVVVVEEEEE!"

Heavy footfalls sounded behind her. It was already back up and in the hunt.

Jinx ran around the corner…and nearly stopped as she saw there was another door in front of her, also closed.

And there was a great racket behind her, as the Nemesis began to tear through her makeshift barriers.

Well, time was a-wasting, and she'd be wasted if she kept wasting, so to speak, as Jinx ran up to the keypad and began punching in the code, hoping, praying…

And with a ping, the door opened.

Jinx could only stare a second in disbelief. She had not expected that.

But it looked like good fortune was back with her, as she ran through the door and hit the button on the other side to close it…

Which didn't work.

Jinx stopped, and then whirled around as she hit the button again. The door stayed open. Sweat sprang on Jinx's brow once more. With the door open and the creature's speed, it would easily catch up to her, and she knew it was gonna be pissed. The door was at least a foot of steel and titanium: she had to close it to buy the time she needed

So she rapidly hammered on the button, even as the racket in the hallway grew louder. The door refused to budge.

Jinx tried putting in other codes in an attempt to get it to sense a security threat and close. Still nothing.

"…Oh you bastarrrdddd!" Jinx half hissed and half screamed as she realized that fate wasn't on her side. It was just playing a really nasty prank.

An explosion tore through the junction, and Jinx's eyes snapped away from the keypad as heavy foot treads resumed.

"Hivvvvvveeeeeee…!"

The Nemesis appeared around the corner and sprinted for Jinx as she frantically hit the keypad, begging it to work, the monster impossibly fast, closing the distance, not going to let her escape again…

And Jinx lost her temper, as her eyes glowed bright pink.

"OH FUCK YOU!" Jinx screamed, and slapped the whole panel.

Which sparked, coursed briefly with pink energy, and then as Jinx watched in amazement, closed the door, cutting off the Nemesis from its prey.

Jinx stared a second more, and then went weak kneed with relief and turned around, leaning her back against the door. She could rest a few seconds. It would take the creature some time to load another rocket, and even it…

The Nemesis' hand crashed through the door roughly four inches away from Jinx's head. Jinx screamed as the tentacle uncoiled and went for her, but it just got a few hair strands as Jinx shoved off the door and ran like hell, even as the Nemesis continued to hammer away at it with unholy strength.

Jinx ran around the corner, throwing a glance back, and then turning back to face…

And ran into someone.

Someone who had her face.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"WHOA!" Nightwalker yelled, as he recoiled from the impact of Jinx running full tilt into his arms, her reflection caught in a new helmet. Evidently he'd had another one stashed somewhere, maybe his room. "Where's the fire?"

"Worse then a fire!" Jinx yelled.

"What?"

"Just run!"

Another loud crash sounded through the hallway.

"What's going on? I heard a ton of noise…"

"JUST RUN!" Jinx yelled as she shoved past Nightwalker and resumed her sprint. Nightwalker, to his credit, fell into step beside her.

"We have trouble?" He asked.

"Big trouble!"

"How big?"

A resounding crash rang through the hallway as the door gave way.

"Hivvvvveeee!"

"I'd say about nine feet and eight hundred pounds!" Jinx yelled, as Nightwalker turned to look…

And the Nemesis ran around the corner.

"HOLY…!"

"Nothing holy about it!" Jinx yelled, as they ran around the corner…and found another locked door. "AH FUCK!"

"You code, I'll hold." Nightwalker said, as he stopped and headed back around the corner.

"Hivvvvveeeeee…" The Nemesis growled, walking again for some reason as it headed up the hallway.

"No! You won't stand a chance!" Jinx yelled.

"I'll be the judge of that." Nightwalker said, as he raised both arms. His gauntlets snapped open.

"It shrugs off guns!" Jinx yelled, even as she frantically typed in codes for the door. Of course, this one wasn't obliging her.

"Guns are for pussies." Nightwalker replied.

And then he aimed and opened fire.

Small round orbs, almost like old ball style bullets used in muskets, began flying from the gauntlets. Except these orbs, instead of soft metal, were composed of an immensely hard polymer compound. And they were fired at a speed about 42 times faster then a musket.

And there was a lot more then one.

They slammed into the Nemesis, and he briefly halted under the storm of powerful strikes, a wrecking ball in each tiny blow, recoiling as they peppered his face, chest, and arms, keeping him from aiming his rocket launcher, actually driving him back a bit…

And then Nightwalker's gauntlets stopped firing, emitting only dry clicks.

The Nemesis stopped its backing up as the assault did, as Nightwalker lowered his arms to check the damage.

Which was…not much.

"WHAT? That would have reduced a tank to swiss cheese!" Nightwalker cursed.

"You'll have to do better then that!" Jinx yelled as she continued to struggle with the door.

Empty clips similar to the ones found in guns ejected from Nightwalker's gauntlets.

"HIVE!" The Nemesis bellowed.

"Right right we heard you." Nightwalker said he reached for his belt.

The rocket launcher was coming up again.

Nightwalker removed a new clip and slammed it into his right gauntlet.

The black barrel seemed to stare ominously at the black-clad teen.

"Well if you talk the talk…" Nightwalker said, as the computer screens behind his helmet lined up his target and locked on.

"HIVE!"

"Walk the walk!"

And Nightwalker fired, three times. And these weren't striking orbs. These were explosive.

All of which slammed into the creature's right knee, blowing the leg to hell and causing the Nemesis to lose his balance and fall forward…

Just as his rocket fired.

Nightwalker dove back into the hallway Jinx was in as the rocket hit the floor in front of the Nemesis and exploded, blasting flames around the corner and making Jinx jump.

As Nightwalker hit the ground, rolled over, and sprang to his feet next to Jinx.

"I bought us a few seconds. How's your end coming up?"

"It isn't! No matter what I do! This damn door is locked!" Jinx yelled.

Nightwalker raised one arm and fired a single orb into the control panel. It sparked and then the door opened.

"Unlocked." Nightwalker said, and headed through it. Jinx stared for a bit. She'd never even seen him reload.

Then she followed after him, as Nightwalker aimed behind him and shot the panel on the other side of the door, causing it to close again.

"How did you know that would work?" Jinx asked as the two lightly sprinted away from the door, knowing it probably wouldn't hold.

"I didn't." Nightwalker replied. "Necessity is the mother of invention."

A brief pause.

"That was the Nemesis."

"Yes." Jinx said.

"From the video game Resident Evil 3."

"Yes."

"…Mind telling me how the hell he got here, especially considering he DOESN'T EXIST and all?" Nightwalker said, leaving out the fact he'd just gotten a lesson in things not existing existing anyway.

"Hey if I knew the answer to that I'd be considerably happier." Jinx replied. Perhaps sensing that Jinx was as much in the dark as him, Nightwalker did not reply as they ran on, hopefully away from the Nemesis.

Of course, the logic the two weren't consciously considering but following nonetheless, as the pair ran around a corner and started down another corridor, wasn't exactly the soundest or the sanest, at least in technical terms. They were hoping that the 'four door' or the 'save room' rule came in to play. Those were two rules in the video game the Nemesis came from, the former being that when you crossed a certain number of thresholds the Nemesis would stop following you. That was good for the short term; the problem was he would eventually turn up again out of the blue and cut you off. The latter rule was for any room with a typewriter and a storage chest in it was a 'safe room', no monster was able to break into it and it was a room in which you were perfectly safe.

Though…

Something briefly crossed Nightwalker's synapses, but it was extremely fleeting and gone almost immediately. And since he was busy running in the physical sense, he didn't have time to pursue in the metaphysical sense: he was sure he'd remember it later.

Not to mention another more immediate problem was heading their way, as the two came across the next door. The pair slid to a halt as Jinx waited for Nightwalker to fire and was quite surprised when he didn't.

"What are you doing? Get this thing open!" Jinx snapped, looking over her shoulders, expecting the monster to be right on their heels.

"I can't blast it, it's already been destroyed!" Nightwalker shot back, looking at the shattered pad. Jinx started to panic: her conscious brain was still swamped in adrenaline and she wasn't sure what the hell was happening anymore, in ANY aspect; all she wanted to do was run. It didn't matter that her legs muscles were starting to rise up in rebellion and taking her arms with it in the revolution against her brain, she needed to keep running.

And then a roar, faint but noticeable, echoed down the corridor.

"Well…you'd better find a way to open it and fast!" Was all Jinx could say. Another roar emanated from down the corridor: it WAS still on their heels.

Nightwalker looked back at the pad, hoping to high hell he could do something. But while he was good at 'impromptu' hacking, the problem was that only worked once, and if all the buttons were already broken then…

Then it struck him, the one button out of all of them that was still there was the 'open' button, the button you pressed after the code was imputed.

Brainstorm. Or maybe madness brought on by desperation: maybe that would work!

Nightwalker pressed it and the door slid open sharply.

"Well, I'll be damned." Nightwalker said.

"You can damn yourself all you want, I'm out of here!" Jinx said as she ran through the door. Nightwalker blinked (well, behind the helmet) and then followed: their luck seemed to be changing.

Or they were being set up. One of the two.

The door shut again just as they entered, allowing Jinx some breathing room as the two inspected the area. They were in a classroom, one of the several that had been created or added on too to allow for the new influx of pupils, both adult and teenaged, in the abandoned building. Curved tables lined the room like a lecture hall rather than a normal classroom, the chairs sitting under them at awkward angles or lying on the floor. It was obviously a room in which all the students had a habit of running as fast as they could to either get to their next lecture or to their lunch break. It was one of the classrooms linked to the training areas, or one training area anyway (the rest were connected via hallways), Nightwalker recalled.

What was surprising, amongst all the discord of the messy room there was soft piano music that floated through the air. It wasn't perfect: whatever was playing it was emitting a faint scratchy noise, but it was still there nonetheless. The two traced the source of the music to the desk down in front of the rows and rows of seats.

On which someone was lying on. Someone with leaf green skin and pink hair.

And behind the desk sat a young woman with a reddish/orange complexion and hair of fire. Scorcher.

"…Aw no." Nightwalker said, guessing what had gone down.

After Scorcher had melted a fair chunk of the building, she had escaped the scene of the carnage that both she and others had wrought and hidden, taking the body of Floral with her so she could give the dear girl a proper funeral later. She knew a lot about proper funerals: death seemed to follow her around. Always passing her by and taking others, those she cared about, those she wanted to survive. They all seemed to die.

No matter what location or moral compass she seemed to inhabit, death was always on her tail.

And this time it looked like it'd crossed paths with her one time too many, as Scorcher had tried to hide from the madness, secreting herself away in the depths of the school, too far away from the entrances to even contemplate escape. And why would she? She didn't want to run from any threat or danger, because she was the greatest one, and no one could run from himself or herself.

Of course, Jinx and Nightwalker couldn't tell all this from just a look, but when they got close enough, they could tell she was lost in some way.

An old hi-fi was hooked up to the speaker system in the classroom for when they had TV demonstrations. It was what was emitting the music.

"Scorcher! Thank god! We got to get out of here!" Jinx said, glad that she'd run into someone with Scorcher's level of power…and alarmed when she got no reply.

"Danielle?" Jinx asked, trying to get some sort of response.

"Jinx?" Nightwalker said to her, as he looked over the very still body of the now deceased Rose Trent. Somehow Jinx had managed to keep from getting a clear look at this, probably due to all her looking over her shoulder, but she saw it now, as she jumped back in surprise, holding her mouth again, thinking she might be sick from what she was seeing. The blown apart soldier's body had been too destroyed to really make out any details of wounds, but Jinx could see the grievous ones on Floral's all too clearly: see right THROUGH them, right into her body, through the horrendous cuts that were everywhere on the young girl, her leafy costume cut to ribbons.

"She's dead."

The voice that spoke was harsh and cold, a voice that didn't match any of the Hive, which made the two jump thinking that it had come from something else, maybe another killer who'd snuck up behind them.

"She died at the hands of a monster… a monster…" The voice spoke, making them realize it was no one new. It was Scorcher, like they'd never heard her before. Usually she was a kind and caring soul, despite that she had been through a lot of pain and anguish, only having a few things in her life go her way, despite all that she still always sounded like she didn't have a care in the world. It truly showed when she spoke to Floral; it was as if a mother was talking to her child, a soft and soothing voice, the type that mothers have when they know they have to make it better.

But now Floral was dead, and this was what was left. A cold and flat voice, pulled down from its high perch with the weight of despair. Too much death. First it was her fiancé, then Rocko when she was a he, and now Floral.

And now Scorcher was dead, or at least her soul was. Her body lived on, propelled by its damn animal instincts to keep going. It was the only thing left: by Scorcher's voice, her mind had been shattered and even she, a woman who was described as being quite wonderful by some, couldn't likely pick them up again.

"Unfair… it's just… what makes us this fragile?" She continued. "Is it me? Am I Death? Am I the personification of such a creature? Killing those around me?"

Jinx moved to reply before Nightwalker put an arm out, shaking his head, as Scorcher lifted up a clean hand and started to rub and push it with her thumb from her other hand.

"Just… just… look at that." She offered the palm to the two before she went back to scrubbing it. "Just… can't seem to get her blood off…Just… just can't."

Jinx looked queasy. This was not a good thing.

Scorcher took a break from her 'cleaning' and stared into space again.

"Where do we come from? Why are we born like this? Like, freaks, outcasts and just… different?"

"Danielle." Jinx stated, ignoring Nightwalker's gesture and speaking as if her words could bring back her mind.

"I… I failed them…all of them… everyone's dead…I'm… I'm a murderer." Scorcher went. Her mind couldn't seem to figure itself out: it had become a knot that not even Alexander could cleave in two with a sword. She felt out of control, and yet she felt paralysed by inertia. Or rather she would have if she didn't feel numb, her whole body feeling like it had shut down, trying to hide behind a shield.

And Nightwalker seemed to recognize this, as he glanced over his shoulder again and then looked back to Scorcher.

"Danielle." He said. He didn't have time to deal with the ultra complicated issues of guilt and pain Scorcher was going through: it wasn't the time and he wasn't qualified and he himself was in danger. But still...

"Danielle. Scorcher. We have to get out of here." Nightwalker said, tying to snap the pyrokinetic out of her self-made trance.

"Why?" Scorcher replied.

"Because something bad is coming. And it'll get us if we don't run."

"Why? Why run? It's safer… It's safer in here. It's out there you have to worry about, it's when you try to run things get you."

And for a chilling moment, Jinx thought about it and realized Scorcher was right. Most of the horrors in life happened when you fought and ran: those who did nothing usually ended up alive or at least died in a pretty painless way.

"…But if we go now, we can find a way out of here!" Jinx tried one last time, again to no avail.

"No. Too late… too too late..." She mumbled, unable to cry any more tears. "The dawn of the day is lost to us… we won't see tomorrow." She stated. "Run run, as fast as you can, you won't get out says the monster man." She chuckled, though that was what disturbed them. Her brief flicker of laughter before her face returned to one of absolute desolation…

And then, much to Jinx's shock, Nightwalker stepped forward and slapped Scorcher across the face.

Jinx didn't think she could look any more shocked then Scorcher did.

"Life isn't fair." Nightwalker said. "Good people suffer and die, bad people grow fat and happy and leave peaceful lives, questions tear you apart because they have no answer, and it seems like nothing will ever change or get better. And yet people still have to, and do, find ways to keep putting one foot in front of the other."

Nightwalker pointed at Floral's corpse.

"I'm sorry she's dead, but she is. This is a sack of meat, or plants, that once held something special. Maybe it's gone now, but in another way it will never be gone, because it will always be in you. It is the greatest success of the human animal to keep going even when all seems lost and pointless. It is the greatest tragedy, and the most pointless, cowardly thing, when the human animal gives up and doesn't even bother trying to escape or fight the monster. Because life has its monsters, in many forms, and the only thing you can do by letting it come and eat you without a fight is to show you didn't even have the guts and the stones to keep on living and let her live through you. So this is my last time. We have to go. NOW."

Scorcher stared at him.

"Fine, we're going." Nightwalker said, a cold tone in his voice as he tried to drag Jinx away.

"You can try, the only place to go is where her life ended. Where justice and fairness both ended up in the beds being raped by promiscuity, perpetuity and corruption, producing nothing but a flailing mass to replace them, nothing but a mockery that will last for all time due to our human nature." Scorcher said.

"Anyone can speak words." Nightwalker replied. "Only the truly damned believe them. And it's not very often that we can truly damn ourselves."

"Those are just words themselves." Scorcher replied.

"Yeah. And I believe them." Nightwalker replied in turn.

Scorcher stared.

The music ended.

And the Nemesis made his grand reappearance, smashing down the wall and door. Some might call that overcompensation for a locked door, others would call it thinking outside the box. If the Nemesis even thought of course, which by his many actions seemed apparent that while he did do it such times were few and far between.

"HIVVVEEEE…" The Nemesis growled, heading into the room, and though it just repeated the lone word it always said, its meaning was clear: you made me chase your damn asses down and boy are you going to regret it.

A crazy thought flitted through Jinx's head: Oh damn we should have checked for a typewriter the typewriter means it's a save room and the Nemesis can't follow you into save rooms…

"Shit." Nightwalker said, scrambling for his belt. When he wasn't in an actual combat situation, he had a habit of removing his gauntlet 'clips' and putting them back in his belt: the clips weighed his arms down, just a bit but enough to screw him up, and as a result he tended to disarm himself when he thought he was safe.

Which led to the problem of him not BEING armed when it was needed.

Fortunately, he didn't have to be.

Scorcher had gone quiet, as she looked up and stared coldly at the Nemesis, not a whit of fear in her expression. She'd gone too far for that. When it came to the phoney tough and the crazy brave, the pyrokinetic was the latter.

Did I say pyrokinetic?

I meant something else.

Pyromaniac.

All the tables and chairs in her immediate vicinity caught fire as the two other Hive members stumbled back from the heat.

"…Well, we'd best be moving then." Nightwalker said, and grabbed the hand of Jinx and pulled, who pulled back momentarily.

"What about Danielle?" She yelled.

"She can take care of herself! We need to move, in her present mindset she'll blow us ALL up at this rate! Now come on!" Nightwalker yelled back as he gave one more tug on her arm, and Jinx, though a little reluctantly, allowed herself to be pulled.

The Nemesis didn't seem too alarmed about the sudden influx of fire, as he headed for Scorcher. Her only reaction was to turn to the silent corpse of Floral.

"Hmm? Oh, I know. They need to get out, but don't worry Hun, I'll help." She turned back to the Nemesis and scowled. "I'll help."

But how does one stand against an unstoppable creature?

Why, you find a way to stop him, of course.

Scorcher snapped a hand out as her fiery hair flared up, sending a blistering wave of flame that washed over the Nemesis's lower right side, driving him back with a growling yell.

"HIVE…" He snarled, as he stood straight up from the slight crouch the fire blast had forced him into. Apparently his outfit was made of some kind of heat resistant material, as it had remained intact, though it was smoking heavily and giving off a horrific stench. Scorcher's eyes narrowed, and fire exploded on her hand and burned white as she prepared a bigger blast.

Which flew true.

And missed, as the Nemesis somehow tapped into some kind of hyper-kinetic ability and dodged the blast. Scorcher's eyes widened as he charged in.

Nightwalker and Jinx had found themselves in the training room Nightwalker had remembered, a large areas that had been made by knocking down the walls between several classrooms. It had a variety of setups, the current one being 'Boom 101'. It was run by Scorcher, which was unsurprising as she knew how to make things explode through years of experience, and it basically amounted to a large group of barrels filled with oil, or other explosive materials. The class was about strategic use of such items.

And Nightwalker had a great idea as he stopped his run halfway through the training room.

"What?" Jinx said, stopping herself.

"Come on!" Nightwalker said as he ran towards a large stack of the barrels. "We can get a few of these around the door, if someone bad comes through we can at least give them something to think about."

Scorcher crashed into the desk on which Floral lay, knocking the body to the floor as the whole desk splintered under the impact, Scorcher flipping over the wreckage and landing on her face. Even though she'd dodged a bit, the Nemesis' backhand had still had the power to knock her back like that. But she was far too mad and out of control to let that keep her down, as she pushed herself up…

And found the Nemesis aiming his rocket launcher at her.

"HIVE!"

The rocket fired.

And Scorcher threw up a wall of flame before her.

Forgetting in her state that probably wasn't the greatest of tactics: a missile exploding near you can be just as bad as a missile exploding against you.

The projectile blew, far too close, blasting Scorcher backwards as she was peppered with shrapnel, and then she slammed up against the wall, her body heat causing her to go straight through it, making Nightwalker and Jinx jump with a shriek as they were interrupted in moving their first barrel.

"Forget this, let's go!" Jinx said as she ran for it. Nightwalker saw the shape of the Nemesis emerging from the hole Scorcher had made and agreed, running after Jinx.

"HIVE!"

Another rocket flew at Scorcher.

And she blasted herself off the ground with a fire blast, throwing herself away as the rocket exploded where she had been. She landed on her feet, and then pain flashed over her face as she clutched her stomach with one hand, dark blood seeping between her fingers. Apparently something sharp had gone in there, too deeply.

Jinx realized she was alone in her run down the corridor she and Nightwalker had fled down, and she turned to see Nightwalker standing at the entrance, aiming a gauntlet.

"What are you doing?"

"I think I can still get a shot…"

The waves of heat washed over him, making him recoil, as a haze flowed up around Scorcher, as the Nemesis walked into the room, its expression never changing but its desire all too apparent.

And Scorcher's as well.

"If you can't stand the heat..." Scorcher said, as her hair glowed white. "GET OUT OF MY CLASSROOM!"

And she slammed out her arm and sent out wave after waves of immense fire, distorting the floor with the heat as the flame slammed into the Nemesis, sending him backwards as impact after impact shoved him…

Right into the piles of barrels.

The whole stack went up in a massive blast, engulfing the Nemesis with a roaring bellow, a second sharp explosion following the first as his rocket launcher blew itself to bits from the heat, as fire washed over the entire room and send Jinx and Nightwalker sprawling on their rears near the corridor entrance.

And then it faded back down, smaller explosions going off as other barrels caught alight, the room burning around Scorcher as she looked at the inferno that had once been the Nemesis. The expression on her face was unreadable.

"…Heh." Jinx said as she got up. "Owned."

And then a loud clatter sounded from the fire.

"…No way." Jinx said.

And then a figure reared out from the flames, all afire but unmistakingly the Nemesis. The fire, smoke, and dancing shadows reduced it to a mere shape, but its voice carried over the roar.

"HIVVVVVEEEEEE!"

Scorcher just stared at the sight. The amount of heat she'd just used would have razed a skyscraper.

Well then…SHE'D JUST HAVE TO USE ENOUGH HEAT TO GIVE THE DEVIL PAUSE.

"Oh shit!" Nightwalker yelled as he realized what was happening, and he grabbed Jinx.

"Hey!"

"RUN! This is gonna be BIG! Absolutely no concern for collateral damage big!" Nightwalker yelled as he sprinted down the long hallway, Jinx at his side.

"HIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The Nemesis bellowed, charging at Scorcher.

Her hair turned blue, the same color fire exploding on her hand.

"AYYYYYYYAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH!"

And as the monster closed in, she reared back and thrust her hand forward.

And the world exploded behind the fleeing not so dynamic duo. The heat was so intense Jinx felt like her backside was melting, but when she turned her head, she realized feeling was far less then what was due.

Because an ocean of flame was heading down the hallway after them, reaching out as if in eager desire to consume them. Scorcher's final attack had indeed been big.

And at the other end was Jinx's new hated enemy for life, the Locked Door.

"Nightwalker!"

"I know!" Nightwalker yelled as he clawed for a new ammo pack.

"NIGHTWALKER!"

"I KNOW!" Nightwalker screamed as he slammed it in and aimed. "OPEN SAYS ME!"

The orb flew out and slammed into the keypad.

And the door chirped as it opened up.

The two ran through.

And Nightwalker spun and fired again into the other keypad.

The door slammed shut, cutting off the fire, but not enough. The front part reached out and engulfed the two, but it was more of a shove then a burn, as the two flew from the impact and tumbled to the ground.

And as expected, ended up on top of each other. Jinx on top of Nightwalker to be specific.

"…So. Come here often?" Nightwalker asked.

Jinx hit him on the shoulder as she got up, Nightwalker kipping up to his feet.

"We have to find the others and get the hell out of here. We can figure out why and how we're fighting monsters from video games later."

"If there's anyone left." Nightwalker muttered, as he fell in step with Jinx.

---

"…You have to be SHITTING ME." Flense said.

"Hey, I thought it was a crudd'n mistake as well!" Gizmo snapped back.

"You must admit that it seems hard to believe. All things considered." Rocko said, as the group hurried back the way they had originally come from. After their little experience, even Sabotage had soured on looking for an exit that way. Who knew what lay behind the next locked door? So the group had gathered up all the remaining drones, the ones that had been lucky enough to be scouting when their guest had come a callin', and had gone back the way they had come. They had been forced to leave the bodies: carrying them would slow them down.

"Yeah well, I didn't believe it either. When you hide cameras all over an enemy base, you don't expect the greatest pictures. And when they all go down at once on one night, well, you tend to think maybe they've been found out and hence junk anything they send you. And I was going to. The snippets I got…for crying out loud! What was I going to say? 'I appear to have a picture of the Titans fighting an evil snowman? Oh look, here's Jason Cruddin' Voorhees walking around like he owns the place?' WOULD YOU HAVE BELIEVED THE PICTURES?"

"You did." Flay said.

"…There was something else. One of the Titans has a blog. I hacked it to monitor it. On Nov 1st I'm at the computer when he starts typing an entry, which pops up on my screen as he does it. He had been writing for about ten minutes when it stopped, and then it vanished. Apparently someone came along and told him that he probably shouldn't reveal what happened that night, so he never posted it. But I still had it. I just…couldn't believe it. I thought I had been found out and was being fed blatantly false info as a big screw you. Expect maybe…that wasn't it at all."

"Ahhhh!" Buzz Bomb said, sounding very much like Tweek from South Park and nearly getting himself killed as several of the Hive drones immediately drew down on him. "AHHHH!"

"Calm down!" Rocko said.

"Oh I'm very calm. It's you guys who I'm worried about. Hahahahha…just need my secret weapon…" Buzz Bomb babbled to himself.

"So what was the entry?" Flense asked.

"I'm just the messenger here, got it?" Gizmo said. "It said there was some kind of reaction on the night of October 30th. The security system was malfunctioning in some areas, and the Titans left it alone because they had a bunch of horror films to watch. One of the broken parts of the system was in an evidence room where they were holding some magical orb that Mumbo guy had used to steal their powers and one of Control Freak's remotes. Anyway, they were starting the films, lightning struck the tower…and something happened. It didn't tell details, but somehow…the films came to life."

Though it had been suspected, someone actually saying the words made everyone stop.

"…To life." Rocko said.

"Yeah. We're talking every famous slasher showing up to try and add the Titans to their body count. They barely survived. Like I said, I thought it had to be fake, so I deleted the file and forgot about it. Until now, anyway."

"And you think the reaction had repeated itself?" Flay said.

"NO SHIT SHERLOCK." Sabotage snarled, still humiliated from the Betelgeuse encounter. He'd just about had enough. You either took what you wanted or got taken, and Sabotage was going to start taking as soon as he saw an opening, remind every one of the fuckers he was NOT a man to be crossed…

"Well, Blood was meeting with Control Freak tonight. And there was a storm. And that was, as much as we might not want to admit it, Betelgeuse. Not Michael Keaton in makeup, not a special effect, THE REAL DEAL, with all the powers he possessed. And if he's here…who knows who else is."

The Hive had arrived back in the TV room where the whole mess had started as Gizmo finished up. The place looked unchanged…except for one thing.

The TV that had been in the center of the room was now off to the side.

It had been replaced by one of the large scarecrow decorations.

At the moment though, the Hive was too distraught to notice.

"…All right Stony! You're in charge! So what do we do?" Sabotage said.

"…Well…we do still need to escape…"

"THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING FROM THE BEGINNING! SO WHY ARE WE LISTENING TO YOU?" Sabotage yelled.

"Because anyone would be stupid to listen to you?" Rocko replied.

"HEY! BOTH OF YOU! STOP!" Gizmo yelled. "It isn't just the monsters. From what I recall, the whole ESSENCE of a horror film invaded the Tower. The clichés, the actions, everything. You're playing into its hands! It wants you to fight so we split up and so we get picked off one by one!"

"Oh please Mikron, do you naturally spew this much shit or do you have to work at it?" Sabotage replied.

"I'm in my happy place. I'm in my happy place…" Buzz Bomb was now muttering to himself.

And Flense appeared to be developing a killer headache, as he stood amongst the yelling for several seconds before his eyes, closed, snapped open.

"ENOUGH!"

Strangely, everyone fell silent.

"This…forget it!" Flense said. "What does it matter! This whole thing's fucked to high heaven!" Flense yelled, throwing up his arms. "Movies come to life! Crazy torture corridors! Godlike zombie ghosts that trick me into killing people I don't want to kill! This is absolutely fucking ridiculous and I've had it, and I want some answers! I want to know just why this happened to us, where's the exit, how do we stop it…" Flense ranted, as he walked around a bit, and then whirled. "And could SOMEONE…" He said, pointing behind him. "Please tell me who put the FUCKING SCARECROW IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM!"

Silence.

More silence.

"…No one did?" Flense said.

Everyone shook their heads.

Flense blinked.

"…Oh my."

The scarecrow suddenly sprouted a giant pair of leathery bat wings.

And Gizmo's eyes widened as he realized just what had happened, and he would have kicked himself for not realizing it before.

"CREEPER!"

And the scarecrow tore itself apart as a creature emerged, a winged beast with a hideous face in an almost contented expression.

Fresh meat.