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?

13. End

Part 13: End

The figure had stepped from the doorway, his form awash in the shadows, and everyone stopped with the aforementioned scream.

Which made Brother Blood wince.

"QUIET!" He bellowed. "Have some freakin' control!"

"Headmaster!" Jinx said.

"Yes! A figure of real authority! We're saved!" Buzz Bomb celebrated.

"Quiet! What's going on…hold it!" Brother Blood said, grabbing Nightwalker as he tried to push past him. "Where are YOU going?"

"Sir, we can't stay here!" Nightwalker yelled.

"Oh no, no one's going anywhere until you tell me why NONE OF YOU INGRATES CAME TO RESCUE ME! That damn cave-in shorted out half my systems! It took me hours to dig my way out! And now I find the whole school's abandoned, half of it's been blown up or lit on fire, there's blood everywhere, and not a single student to be found! So you better have a damn good explanation…!"

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!" Nightwalker screamed as he shoved Blood aside and ran for it, Blood's eyes going wide with confusion and then darkening with rage as he spun around.

"YOU IMPUDENT SCALLYWAG! I'll have you lick the dirt from my bo…what?" Blood said, his attempted mental command interrupted when Jinx and Shimmer also pushed past him and ran for it.

"YOU BETTER RUN HEADMASTER!" Jinx called over her shoulder. A second later Buzz Bomb zipped past Blood as well.

"The whore has a point sir!" Buzz Bomb said, flying off, as Blood grit his teeth so hard he could feel his jaw cracking.

"WHAT KIND OF A SCHOOL IS THIS! I trained you! WHAT ARE YOU…" Blood said as he whirled around.

And found himself face to face with Sadako.

"Who in blue blazes are YOU?"

Sadako glanced up.

Blood stared into that black eye, and then a horrific pain suddenly exploded through his chest. He staggered back, clutching it, even as Sadako walked forward, and Blood could feel the pressure building up even more, his powers refusing to come to him, as the pain grew even stronger…

"…You know, I don't know you, and you appear to have just stabbed me in my chest…but I have a feeling you're better then any of my graduates will ever be." Blood said.

Water exploded from Blood's chest, his systems shorting out and exploding, as Blood fell backwards, a final trickle of water and steam lofting from his open mouth, as Sadako walked on.

"Shit! She got the headmaster!" Jinx said as the four of them stood by yet another locked door. Shimmer had been going to get rid of it, but Nightwalker had pushed her aside and asked for her to let him try and open it first. Standing still had allowed Jinx to hear the noises she had correctly assumed were Blood's end. She was about to feel something else, when a wave of dizziness and nausea flowed through her.

"Guys…I don't feel so good…" Jinx said, as she leaned on a wall.

"Suck it up Jinx. I don't want to leave you behind." Nightwalker said. Jinx's vision blurred, but she listened and fought it off. The dizziness faded…mostly.

A few seconds later, the door opened up, and everyone ran through. Nightwalker slammed it closed on the other side.

"Buzz Bomb, fuse it!"

"What?"

"Shoot your lasers on the ends so it can't open up again!"

"No way! You ruined my plan!"

"And if you don't listen I'll ruin YOUR FACE!" Nightwalker snarled as he aimed one of his guns at Buzz Bomb. The teen meekly obeyed, setting a concentrated blast on the edges of the door.

"Now what do we do?" Shimmer asked.

"We have to get out of here! Get to the TV room, like Gizmo said, leave the school! Maybe then…!" Nightwalker said.

The lights all went dead.

Shimmer screamed.

And then went on again.

Shimmer was still there and unhurt, but she wished she wasn't.

The whole hallway had turned into hell, all the metal and stone vanishing into rotting, stinking flesh. The walls were covered with it, it dangled from the ceiling, and it squished underfoot as everyone looked around in horror.

"…Damn! Come on! We have to leave!" Nightwalker said, and whirled around.

Sabotage stood before him, making Nightwalker start. Especially when he realized Sabotage had no eyes, his gory sockets dribbling blood down his cheeks as he smiled.

"You can't leave."

His teeth were gone, razor blades driven into his gums in a chaotic patchwork.

"We won't let you."

Shimmer screamed once more.

And then Nightwalker got his gun up and blew Sabotage away, the body staggering under the bullets, trying to resist, but the firepower was too intense and he was blown to pieces, collapsing into a rain of ruined flesh the same color that covered the walls. It apparently wasn't the real Sabotage, just a construct of some sort.

"Your bad luck then." Nightwalker said. "Come on! We have to get out of here!"

And then the hallways filled with chaotic whispers.

"Can't leave…"

"Won't leave…"

"You belong to us…"

"You ALL do."

The floor ripped up, bloody tentacles tearing through the flesh and grabbing at Shimmer and Jinx's legs, and the two screamed and tried to get away, even as the tentacles…the VINES ripped at their flesh…

Nightwalker blew the vines away as well in another burst of fire, and Buzz Bomb actually helped out a bit with his lasers, much to Nightwalker's amazement. Of course Buzz Bomb then immediately screamed and began shooting everything before Nightwalker slapped him, hard.

"At least wait until it STARTS moving." Nightwalker said, as he unslung his other gun, turning back to the girls. "Selinda, can you use one of these?"

"Uh…"

"Jinx can't shoot, the recoil will hurt her too much. Buzz Bomb already has weapons, and I can't John Woo with two machine guns. CAN YOU USE THIS?" Nightwalker repeated.

Shimmer stared for a second, then took the gun.

"I had one lesson." She said.

"Don't want new marksmen records my dear, just make sure you can-HOLY!" Nightwalker yelled as the floor once again erupted, this time behind Buzz Bomb, who screamed and flew away, not even bothering to counter-attack as a mass of snarling vines intertwined with the ruined remains of a female body tore itself from the floor.

"Hun…where are you…mamma knows best…" Scorcher's mouth said, the lower jaw all that remained from her head, as the hideous abomination the two intertwined forms had become reached for the survivors.

Nightwalker and Shimmer blew it away, riddling it with bullets as they backed up…and then turned and ran when it collapsed and exploded in flames, Jinx skipping and hopping along to try and keep up. As Nightwalker turned around, the form rose again, a burning mass, and Nightwalker fired one last spray into it, putting it down for good…

As Sadako stepped from the shadows behind it. The door hadn't slowed her down at all.

"Ah crap!" Nightwalker said, as the three ran for it, Sadako in pursuit.

Buzz Bomb ran into them on the way back, as he was fleeing the other way.

"Keep it away from me!" Buzz Bomb screamed, as another form emerged from the darkness ahead…Mammoth.

"…Baran." Shimmer whispered. Rods of barbed black metal had been driven through Mammoth's body to hold his wounds together, his neck wound lolling open none the less.

"Why didn't you just LISTEN to BIG BROTHER? JOIN US!" Mammoth rasped, as he reached for the four.

Mammoth's head exploded in a spray of rotten tissue.

"You're not my brother." Shimmer replied, lowering her gun as the body began to fall.

And stopped.

As a giant arm composed of exposed blood-red muscle and tipped with cruel claws erupted from the ruins of Mammoth's hand and shot out, seizing Shimmer around the shoulders and pinning her arms to her side as the arm began dragging her back, Shimmer screaming.

Several hex blasts slammed into the arm, tearing into it, and then another spray of bullets blew it apart. The body staggered back, and then Nightwalker yelled at Buzz Bomb to shoot, which he did, blowing it to bits much like Sabotage.

"Keep MOVING!" Nightwalker yelled as the four ran forward.

They'd been running on normal hallway for several seconds before they realized it, as they stopped and looked around.

"What the hell was THAT?" Jinx asked.

"Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves, and set them upright at their dear friends' doors." Nightwalker said. Everyone looked at him. "Shakespeare. They're trying to freak us out. But I can't see why…"

Sadako emerged from the darkness at the end of the hallway where the horror had stopped.

"NOW I DO! RUN!" Nightwalker yelled, as the four once again started sprinting down the hallway. When they were some fair distance away, Nightwalker turned and fired the last of his bullets towards Sadako, only to have them once again be deflected away and bounce all over the hallway, though Nightwalker was too far for them to hit him as he ejected the empty clip with a curse and continued running, darting around another corner to join the others.

"Where are we?" Jinx asked: she was by now so confused she couldn't tell which way was up, much less which way the TV room was.

"I don't know, keep running!" Nightwalker said.

Darkness.

"SHIT!"

This time it was even worse. Nightwalker's ears were immediately assailed by terrible moans, moans he couldn't tell the direction of until he looked down onto the shifting floor.

And saw the faces.

They were standing on a floor made up of faces.

Living, breathing, moving faces, all screaming and moaning and crying for help. Nightwalker was so shocked he nearly passed out.

And then he saw it was more then faces. Instead of rotten flesh, this time the walls and ceilings were made of body parts, dangling broken arms, outstretched skinned legs, rib cages encasing beating hearts, blades and wires and hooks and chains winding through them, cutting and pulling and tearing at them. A face was occasionally embedded in among the parts. The face of Billy Numerous. The faces below were of the Hive drones, and all together they made a damned chorus of misery that made one soul-sick.

Everyone was so busy staring at the terrible sight that they almost didn't notice the flaming figure.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The figure wailed, body covered in fire, as he charged at the group, bits of himself sloughing off as he dashed down the hallway of bodies, heading for the group.

Shimmer blew him apart, and his fiery body parts scattered on the floor. His head bounced past the group, and Nightwalker noticed the skull had disintegrating long hair on it. Juryrig, the poor bastard.

"Nightwalker! Let's go!" Jinx was yelling, and Nightwalker snapped out of it and ran, trying to ignore the faces crying below him, as he snapped in another clip as he dashed past the group, taking point…

The cage came from out of nowhere, landing right in front of Nightwalker. Before he could stop, the cage then lunged forward, propelled by the arms on the walls. It slammed into Nightwalker's outstretched knee, and Nightwalker screamed in pain as he felt something break, tumbling to the ground as the cage reared above him.

It was, as he saw, a square shaped structure of bars…and inside was Rhinoceros Beetle. That would have been bad enough, but it was clear the cage was far too small for Wilby to have fit in it in his giant form, the form he was in…the form that had somehow been forced into the cage anyway, with horrifying results, the body squashed and broken, the flesh almost oozing out from between the bars, Wilby's face crushed up against them, moaning dully, even as the arms on the wall reared the cage up to slam down on top of Nightwalker.

Bullets tore into the cage, and Wilby cried out even as he was riddled, but Shimmer didn't let up, as the cage began to be torn apart, the bars not metal but some kind of rotten bone, and Nightwalker jerked his own gun up and added to the firepower, ripping the cage into pieces, and unfortunately doing the same to Wilby's body.

"Nightwalker!"

"Are you ok?" Jinx asked as the two girls came up to the teen, as he tried to get up…and pain exploded through his leg. "You're hurt!"

"Not badly enough." Nightwalker said. He tossed Shimmer a new clip of ammo even before she could ask for it and then limped over to Buzz Bomb, who was too busy shooting the walls and floor to have helped out with the imposter Wilby.

"Just keep MOVING, asshole!" Nightwalker snarled.

"Give me a good reason!" Buzz Bomb replied.

Before the pair, Sadako appeared.

"THAT'S A GOOD REASON!" Buzz Bomb shrieked as he flew away. Nightwalker tried to run, but with every step an agony of pain lanced up his leg and he was reduced to a fast jog.

Screams and gunfire came from up ahead, and a few seconds later Nightwalker arrived to see what Shimmer and Jinx were shooting at.

"You…can't…escape…" Zippy whispered, her head lolling off her body, half the muscles severed, her whole torso laid open, the teens able to see right through her, as Zippy took a step, her body twisting and breaking apart even as she moved, muscles jerking her form this way and that. But her destroyed body almost meant there was little substance for bullets to pierce.

"No…escape…" Zippy semi-howled.

The butt of Nightwalker's gun slammed into her face, and then across Zippy's head, causing her form to lurch and crash into the wall. Jinx then violently kicked the meat puppet, and it fell, where Shimmer and Jinx stomped on it until it moved no more.

But that gave Sadako time to catch up again, and the four were forced to run again, as the hell corridor faded away again, leaving a normal school hallway.

And Nightwalker was falling behind. His knee was too badly injured, and unlike Jinx he wasn't light enough to drag along without effort. He was slowing them all down.

Buzz Bomb flew through the open door, and Jinx and Shimmer swiftly followed before turning around to see where Nightwalker was, several feet behind them, limping along.

As Sadako appeared from the darkness.

"Come on Nightwalker! Let's go!" Jinx and Shimmer called, reaching out to him: Jinx had somewhere lost her arm sling.

Nightwalker glanced behind him. The sight gave him a burst of speed, as he limped up to the door.

And stopped at the frame.

"Run." Nightwalker said.

"What?" Jinx replied.

"I'm done. Go. Get out of here. I'll buy you time." Nightwalker said.

Jinx stared at the helmeted teen. She did not protest. She knew it would do no good.

"…Are you sure?" She asked.

"…Yes." Nightwalker replied.

"…Thank you." Jinx said, as a tear streaked down her face.

Nightwalker nodded, and then hit the door button, as it closed between the two. He sighed and turned back around.

Sadako approached.

Nightwalker raised his gun and opened fire. No bullet went near the spirit, every deadly shell passing by her. Nightwalker fired until he was out of ammo anyway.

The gun clicked dry, and Nightwalker dropped it helplessly, watching Sadako come.

And then, with a deep sigh, Nightwalker reached up and slowly pulled off his helmet. It clattered on the floor.

"I die now." Nightwalker said. "But you will damn well see it's unafraid."

And Nightwalker leapt at Sadako, throwing blows…

…as everything fell into black, an inescapable, terrible black.

Nightwalker's body fell to the ground.

Sadako stepped over it and left it behind, walking on. The closed door meant nothing to her, as she passed through it like it wasn't there.

And then…from a corner, Mittens crept, creeping over to Nightwalker's body. The kitten looked upon the teen's distorted, blackened face and meowed sadly, and then licked at the features, as if this would somehow turn back what had happened.

---

"Uh Jinx, a side note…" Buzz Bomb said as the final three survivors ran down the hallway, as Jinx turned her tear-streaked face towards the bee-teen. "Remember when I asked you if you'd go out with me and you said 'Only if were in some kind of hopeless situation'?"

Jinx skidded to a stop.

"WHAT?"

"Well I figure this works pretty well! So what do you say?"

"FUCK YOU!"

"Yes, that's exactly what I was suggesting! I'm glad we're on the same-ACK!" Buzz Bomb yelled as Jinx grabbed him and slammed him against the wall.

"If Nightwalker hadn't just done something so noble I'd break your fucking neck right now." Jinx snarled.

"I'll be quiet now." Buzz Bomb said meekly. Jinx let him go…she had to: the pressure within her was coming back, a deep dull ache…what was wrong with her…

"Guys! We have to run! We have to-EEEEEEEEEE!" Shimmer screamed as the darkness flashed over the halls, the terrible power sinking its corruption in once more.

It was back to the flesh, but this time it was worse. This time a sickening heat came off the tissue, even as it seemed to pulse beneath them, throbbing with terrible, unholy life.

As twin skeletal hands tore from the ground and seized onto Jinx's legs.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jinx screamed, as her legs sank into the flesh, as she screamed and fought, even as twin heads emerged from the rot, one twisted upside down and the other lacking facial skin.

"I can see you." Seemore said, his eyes bulging from his bleeding face.

"AHHHH! LEMME GO!"

"Ah but say don't you see, we have you?"

"Come on little missy!" Private Hive snapped. "This whole place has been turned upside down! It has to be fixed! Starting with yo-"

Jinx clamped her hands on the two heads.

"The deepest thing in anyone is the bad luck that follows boasting." Jinx snapped off, and sent a surge of power through the heads. They exploded, and Jinx fought herself free from the quicksand like flesh, ignoring the pain in her limbs. Nightwalker had died for her, she wouldn't be wasting that sacrifice as she pulled herself to her feet.

Even if part of her felt like she would keel over any second…

She immediately saw why Shimmer and Buzz Bomb hadn't been able to help her: they were firing at the latest atrocity that was approaching. It tottered forward on one twisted leg and a length of bone that might have been a rib cage, limbs twisted around each other, impaled through each part of itself like some kind of horrendous organic tangle of string, one side of Progeny's head barely sticking out from the mass as it came, soaking up bullets.

"Just want…one kiss…" Progeny said, trying to pucker with half a mouth.

Shimmer's gun clicked dry.

"Ah…come my sweet…" Progeny said, lurching towards Shimmer.

Shimmer thrust out her hands.

Progeny stopped dead as he became an ice statue.

"Cool off Romeo." Shimmer said, as she slammed the butt of her gun onto the statue and shattered it.

"Nice work." Jinx said as she joined the two, Shimmer dropping the empty gun on the floor.

"Let's go!" Shimmer said, as the three of them took off down the hallway.

They almost didn't see the mouth opening up beneath them before it was too late.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jinx and Shimmer screamed as they jumped away at the last second, barely avoiding sliding down the drooling, sharp-fanged gullet.

"Ha! That's why it's good to be a flyer!" Buzz Bomb bragged.

The section of wall surged out, hungry teeth attempting to ensnare Buzz Bomb.

"AIYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Buzz Bomb screamed, as he flew back, rapidly firing his lasers. "DIE YOU SPACKLE SKINNED BEAST!"

"Come on!" Jinx said, as she grabbed Buzz Bomb by the ankle and yanked him back, as the three of them continued to flee…

And stopped dead. It was a dead end.

So to speak. Blocking their way was a hideous throbbing membrane, stretched over the hallway and barring their exit.

Jinx and Buzz Bomb shot it with lasers and hex blasts. They had no effect.

"Argh! I didn't come all this way to be thwarted by an oversized artery blockage! MOVE!" Buzz Bomb said as he rammed into the membrane, which sank in but didn't break as it repelled Buzz Bomb.

"We have to go back!" Jinx said, as she whirled around…

As the flesh opened up, and a table emerged from the floor.

Platinum Blonde's body lay on the table, strange small cloaked figures crouched over it, fusing lengths of metal to her neck, her limbs, and over her eyes.

Jinx and Shimmer only caught a fleeting glimpse of them though, as they literally vanished into thin air.

As Platinum Blonde lurched off the table and came for the three.

"NO WE DON'T!" Buzz Bomb screamed, as he attacked the membrane again.

Jinx fired off hex blasts, but they barely affected Platinum Blonde at all, and as Jinx staggered away from her Shimmer ran in, trying to transform her…Only to be swatted away before she could, flying through the air and hitting the membrane before crashing back down to the ground.

"Hey! I think that made it give some! Throw Jinx at it, she's been putting on weight!" Buzz Bomb yelled.

Jinx seized Buzz Bomb by his shoulders and yanked him around to face Platinum Blonde.

"AHHHHHH! You can't force me to do this! It's...against my religion!" Buzz Bomb yelled.

"Be quiet and use these damn lasers to SEND HER TO HELL!" Jinx said as she yanked up Buzz Bomb's arm and pulled at the trigger that was concealed near his wrist. A laser shot out, glancing off Platinum Blonde as she charged in.

Jinx fired again, this time a more concentrated shot, and one of the metal lengths holding Platinum Blonde's head on was severed, the head breaking partly off and lurching wildly off the shoulders, but Platinum Blonde didn't slow a bit as she closed in and Buzz Bomb screamed.

Jinx fired, and the second band shattered, causing Platinum Blonde's head to topple off as she rammed into Buzz Bomb, who flew backwards even as she collasped, trying to stop himself by grabbing onto Jinx and Shimmer…as he tore through the membrane, dragging the girls with him as he collapsed to the floor in the room beyond.

"…It worked! I'm a genius!" Buzz Bomb said as he leapt up.

"WHAT?" Jinx said.

"I…I-yi-yi." Buzz Bomb said.

The room was filled with bodies, but unlike the previous ones these were normal, if you discounted their often hideous mutilations. They were everywhere: piled on the floor, hung and displayed on and from the walls and ceiling, propped on the furniture, everywhere.

All the drones and students, all in the room, all dead at the hands of the boogeymen. Buzz Bomb swallowed…

And then realized where he was.

"The TV ROOM!" Buzz Bomb said, even as the girls saw the lone TV sitting out near the center of the room, screen on and showing static. "Thank you god! We don't have to go back in the hallway! Let's get out of the…HEY!" Buzz Bomb bellowed as he looked up. Shocked by the sudden cry, the two girls looked up as well.

The ceiling of the room looked back at them, as if mocking them. Yeah, it had fallen before…but no more.

It had said no escape, and it meant it.

"Now what do we do?" Shimmer asked.

"…Back to the hallway!" Buzz Bomb said, and turned around to run that way.

As the sights beyond fell into darkness, all sight vanishing.

And then Sadako stepped through the doorway.

No escape.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" Buzz Bomb screamed, as he began firing lasers. The blasts deflected away from Sadako, piercing through the nearby walls and fallen corpses, as Shimmer dragged Jinx away from Sadako…for about seven feet, before she too collapsed. She suddenly felt very tired.

"Argh! CHEATER!" Buzz Bomb yelled at Sadako as she slowly started approaching, outright ignoring his lasers. He flew back to Jinx and Shimmer.

"Shimmer, turn her into a go-kart or something!"

"What? I can't do such a complex alteration! And even if I could, you think I can get close to her?" Shimmer shot back. "Go blow up the roof again!"

"I'm out of booms, and thanks to that damn Nightwalker, I can't even blow the base and hope we survive!"

"Then fly Shimmer up to the roof and have her turn it into smoke or something!" Jinx yelled.

"You want me to lift her up with just my wings? Forget it! I won't get high enough and I'll have backaches for weeks!"

"If we don't do something we'll be lucky to have SECONDS!" Jinx yelled, and fired several hex blasts at Sadako. They deflected away, exploding around the spirit, as she continued her slow approach.

"Wait…" Buzz Bomb said, as his eyes fell on the TV on the pedestal behind him, showing nothing but static. "This is the only TV working! That HAS to mean something!" Buzz Bomb yelled, and reached out and seized the device. "Alright you Japanese Indy Movie Thing, GO BACK WHERE YOU BELONG!"

And Buzz Bomb hurled the TV at Sadako.

Where it stopped in mid-air, and much to the three's surprise, floated back to the pedestal behind them.

"HEY!" Buzz Bomb yelled, and reached for the TV again…and promptly received a powerful shock that threw him to the ground. "Great! Now the TV's haunted!"

Jinx tried to grab the TV herself, and was similarly and violently repulsed. With a sick feeling, she recognized the experience as the exact same feedback she had felt when she had attempted to muck with Leatherface's chainsaw…except stronger, much stronger.

"Jinx…" Shimmer whispered in horror, and Jinx turned back around.

Sadako stood before them, and as Jinx watched, she slowly began lifting her arm, as her hair began to part, and the pain began…

As a corpse rose from the pile of bodies it lay on and lashed Sadako in the back. The metal whip was violently repulsed, but it appeared to have made some contact.

"Sadako." Flense said.

And much to Jinx's surprise, Sadako stopped, as she turned her head to face Flense, who had come from nowhere.

"Recognize this?" Flense said, holding up something. A videotape.

"Interesting stuff you find lying around when people think you're dead. Like this. Your videotape, am I right, Sadako?" Flense said.

Sadako turned around from the three and began approaching Flense, whose eyebrows narrowed.

"I thought so. The fact that you're approaching confirms it. This tape and you are linked. Watch it and you're called. In a way, this is what you come from…" Flense said, and brought a tentacle to the tape as if he was going to crush it.

Sadako was suddenly right in front of him, having crossed the space in an eyeblink, as her hair fell open.

As Flense jumped backwards, having prepared.

"So I REALLY don't think it would be good for you to TOUCH IT!"

And he tossed the tape at Sadako, right into her upraised arm.

White light exploded from the contact, consuming Sadako, as Flense landed, looking grimly satisfied.

"Flense!" Jinx was calling, and Flense turned to look at the sorceress. She still looked scared.

"It's ok! It's the damn rules! This'll get rid of…"

"NO! IT'S NOT JUST SADAKO!"

"…WHAT?"

"IT'S NOT JUST SADAKO! IT'S SAMARA! THEY MERGED! IT'S BOTH!"

The explosion of light cut out, and a smoking hunk of ash that had once been a videotape clattered to the ground, where it disintegrated.

Sadako still stood there, hunched over, jerking a bit, as if in pain. But she remained, as Flense looked at her in horror.

"No…no! I thought…it has to…"

Sadako jerked her body upwards and came for Flense again, who yelled and lashed out. This time, his tentacles weren't just repulsed, they were actually slammed back into him, throwing him back against the wall, as Sadako stalked towards him…and then Flense leapt up, seized the ceiling, and clambered over Sadako, heading for the center of the room…

And then the roof was suddenly water, and Flense yelled as he fell back down to the floor, landing with a loud thud. Despite the bad impact, he sprang back up and leapt over to the three, as Sadako turned back around again.

"So it's both the ghosts? The original and the American one?" Flense asked.

"…Yeah…yeah we think so." Jinx said.

"Shit. No wonder it didn't work. There were TWO videotapes. I only picked up one!" Flense said as he shoved Buzz Bomb aside.

There, on top of the VCR, next to a nigh-unidentifiable hunk of melted plastic, was the other tape. Flense reached for it…

It jerked out of Flense's hands, and he yelled as it flew past him, whirling and sending off a tentacle after it, but Sadako once again repelled it, as the tape flew into the shadows of the doorway and vanished without a trace.

And Flense realized that had been the plan all along. Offer hope and then jerk it away. Make the despair as deep as possible.

Well he wasn't giving up yet, as he looked at the other three Hive members.

"Is there ANY other way out of this room?"

"She's standing in front of the only door, and I doubt any of us will be allowed to leave even if we try and make a new exit." Jinx whispered.

"Shit! What about the television?"

"It got wise to me after the first time." Buzz Bomb said.

"OH FUCK THIS!" Flense roared, and lashed a metal tentacle against the television. The reaction blasted him onto his ass.

"She's coming!" Shimmer screamed, as Sadako approached. Hoping against hope, Jinx and Buzz Bomb let off one final spray of hex blasts and lasers.

None of them touched Sadako, as she once again approached.

Jinx lowered her arms, and decided that this was it. She was tired anyway…so tired…

"…No! It's…it's not fair! I had them all in my power…I was going to rule the HIVE and have a bevy of slavegirls and unlimited supplies of Mountain Dew and coffee…"

"Shut up and die with dignity." Flense muttered as he got up into a crouch, watching Sadako come and knowing there was nothing he could do.

"…Ah well. At least Gizmo went first." Buzz Bomb said.

And Sadako closed in, as she raised her arm, as her black eye fell upon the remains…

And a rock hand clamped down over her wrist.

"Hey there." Rocko said.

Then she threw Sadako into the nearest wall.

"…WHAT THE!" Jinx stammered. "ROCKO?"

"In the flesh…so to speak." The last remaining Elemental said: her body was back together…barely. The stonework was a mess of tiles and even bandages holding the rocks together, but she was still standing.

"YES! WE'RE SAVED! HAPPY DANCE! HAPPY DANCE!" Buzz Bomb said, doing said happy dance, the less said about the actual dance the better.

"But…Nightwalker said you were dead! He tried to wake you up, he did everything…!" Jinx said, still not able to believe it.

"I needed a good deep nap. A nap the forces that infest this place tried to make permanent. But I've conquered death herself, I'll be damned if a bunch of fake puppets of it keep me down." Rocko said, as she turned to face Sadako, as the ghost floated back up from where she lay from the impact. "So…this little waif is the last line they can muster, eh?"

"Watch it Rocko! She's more dangerous then she looks!" Flense said as he got up.

"Well, I'm just AS dangerous as I look, and you know damn well how much THAT IS." Rocko growled, as she stomped over to Sadako.

"Rocko wait! You took her by surprise! Attacking her head on won't…"

Rocko swung out her fist.

The fist connected…but Sadako didn't even seem to notice.

While Rocko's whole arm shattered into bits.

"Work so well." Flense finished. Rocko recoiled, making a grunting noise…and then her arm began to float back up and reform.

Sadako's black eye glared out at Rocko.

Cracks burst across Rocko's chest, as her arm fell apart completely and stayed there, Rocko falling to one knee, making a strange noise that wasn't exactly coughing, but was close.

"This isn't going to work. Water eventually grinds rock down to nothing in all aspects." Flense said, as he looked at the three. "Rocko will only give us another minute unless we think of a plan, NOW!"

"Run away?" Shimmer asked.

"We can't!"

"You know, if we survive, I vote the next place we move into has rice paper walls and escape pods every two feet." Buzz Bomb said.

"Shut up unless you have something USEFUL!"

Rocko hurled the stone remains of her arm at Sadako, but the pieces deflected away, flying away from Rocko before she could call them back. Growling again, the Elemental punched her fist deep into the ground and yanked out a hunk of steel, which she hurled at Sadako.

It stopped in mid air and then flew back, slamming into Rocko's head and breaking a third of it off. Rocko staggered back again, and then with a bellow charged in, swinging her lone remaining arm.

"Oh, I have an idea!" Buzz Bomb said. "Let's film this and sell it to Hollywood! Hell, this is ten times more creative then anything they've thought of in the past…"

"That's IT!" Jinx said. "Film! Shimmer! Your camera! Why didn't I think of it before!"

"Camera?" Flense said in confusion.

"She has the Camera Obscura! From a video game! It gets rid of ghosts! Sadako's a ghost! USE IT ON HER!"

The surge of excitement Jinx felt faded away just as fast when she didn't see it spread to Shimmer's face. Instead, the girl just smiled sadly and lifted the antique camera hanging around her neck.

"Oh Llarenes…I wish I'd said something…but that was the first thing that came to mind when I first saw Sadako." Shimmer said, as she turned the camera around and opened up the empty back. "But there's no film."

"ARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!" Rocko bellowed as water exploded from within her chest, and her body broke apart and collapsed in pieces once more, as Sadako stepped over the remains and began heading for the four survivors yet.

"No escape…" A voice howled around the room.

"No film! You idiot! Haven't you ever heard of picking up powerups? You're a disgrace to the world of gamers!" Buzz Bomb snapped.

"Shit! She's coming again! Shimmer, where do you get film?" Flense asked.

"I don't know…" Simmer whispered, as a pair of tears leaked from her eyes.

Sadako suddenly stopped as a half-formed hand of rock reached up and seized her ankle.

"Not rid of me yet, bitch!" Rocko's head snarled, trying to keep herself together despite the immense forces that were immediately brought to bear on her.

"Shit! We only have seconds! Shimmer, come on, you can think of something!" Jinx said.

"If I knew…but I didn't…never bothered looking for film…I…I'm so sorry…" Shimmer sobbed.

And Flense suddenly leapt away from the group, bouncing over to what might have once been a table, before a night of hell took its toll on it, as Flense grabbed up all the dead bodies and hurled them aside, searching through a disgusting mix of old spoiled and destroyed food, blood and guts, and other unpleasantness.

"Come on! I KNOW I saw it here! It has to be here!" Flense snarled to himself, making a mess as he furiously searched for something.

"Great, we're doomed and he decides he wants to go on a scavenger hunt." Buzz Bomb commented.

"What is he…?" Jinx said.

"YES!" Flense yelled as he yanked something from the mess at his feet.

Another camera. The same camera Jinx remembered seeing at the snack table before the whole mess had begun, as Flense ripped open the back and pulled out the unused spool of film, as he leapt back over to Shimmer.

"Film! Now use it!" Flense said, slapping the spool into Shimmer's hand.

"…Flense, this is MODERN FILM! This camera's an antique! It won't work in this!" Shimmer said, indicating the Camera Obscura.

"Yes it will. Because you're going to change it into the proper film."

"…Flense, I can just do simple matter transmutations. I can't turn this complex mix into 100-year old film, maybe…"

"Yes you can Shimmer."

"No, I can't! My powers won't let me!"

"Yes, they will, because you SAY they will."

"Flense…"

"Shimmer, LOOK AROUND." Flense said. "In the past several hours you've seen reality chewed up, spit out, and laughed at, and the laws of physics reduced from guidelines to something to openly flounce and laugh at. But there's a problem with forces that choose to do that Shimmer. It works BOTH ways."

"But…"

"Shimmer, it doesn't matter what your set power limits are! What matters are the rules that govern this place! You think horror films make sense? They don't! So do something senseless! CHANGE THE FILM!"

"Flense…" Jinx said.

"DO IT! DO IT GOD DAMN IT OR I'LL SLIT YOUR THROAT RIGHT NOW!" Flense roared as he snapped out a bladed tentacle. Shimmer screamed and recoiled, nearly dropping the film.

"ARGH!" Rocko bellowed, and everyone turned to see Sadako step away from the rock pile as it fell apart completely. The rocks quivered, apparently trying to put themselves back together but unable to gather the strength.

Flense looked back at Shimmer.

"Shimmer, for the sake of your brother, TRY, because if you don't, you'll be joining him in hell!"

"…WHAT?" Shimmer snapped. "My brother was a good man! I know the stupid law system and those damn Titans said otherwise, but they never knew him, I did, and how dare you…" Shimmer said, as a glow infused her hand…and as Shimmer looked at it, she saw that the roll of film had indeed started to morph into something else.

"See! You can do it!" Flense said.

"Won't do us any good!" Buzz Bomb screamed, and Flense jerked his head back towards Sadako, who was closing in once more…too close.

"Prove me wrong then kid." Flense said.

And then he leapt at Sadako, tentacles lashing.

"What the…" Buzz Bomb said. "He's buying you time too? Damn it doesn't anyone act like a villain around here!"

"Come on bitch! You haarrrghhhh, do more…then…AGGUHHHHHH!" Flense gurgled as water erupted from his mouth, and he too fell at Sadako's feet, as the rancorous ghost walked on, having dealt with the improbable survivors, and now planning to finish the last three off…

"…No. No more death. I'm sick of it! Leave us alone! GO AWAY!" Shimmer yelled.

And the film in her hand shifted once more, and then with a flash of light it was no longer just a normal roll of film. It was something else entirely.

Jinx could see the words emblazoned on it.

TYPE ZERO.

"…You know, if she had a bit more experience in these matters she could probably drop off a decent pun about being in pictures." Buzz Bomb said as Shimmer slammed the film in.

"GO-AWAY!" Shimmer screamed, and pressed the button.

The flash went off, and Sadako staggered back, her hair whipping about violently…and then she started walking towards the group, as Shimmer took her face away from the camera as the picture began to emerge.

"It didn't work!" Buzz Bomb cried.

"Do it again!" Jinx yelled.

"I plan to…but the film…takes so frikkin long to reload!"

The picture dropped at Shimmer's feet.

"But not long ENOUGH!" Shimmer snapped as she took Sadako's picture once more. The ghost girl flailed back again, but not for long, as she continued to stalk towards the group.

As Shimmer took her picture again, and again, the pictures falling at her feet, as Sadako jerked and spasmed, like she was being struck by bullets, and Jinx and Buzz Bomb saw she was starting to go see through, her tangibility fading away, as Shimmer took yet another photo.

Sadako fell to her knees.

And with one final snap, she disappeared entirely, leaving the three alone in the room.

"…I thought it took a long time to reload." Jinx said.

"It does. I told it it doesn't." Shimmer said, as she lowered the camera, as Sadako's final picture ejected and joined the small mass on the ground, the spirit forever frozen in time.

"…Good job Selinda. Baran would be proud of you." Jinx said, as she put a comforting arm on Shimmer's shoulders, as Shimmer sighed deeply.

"It's over…but at such a great cost…" Shimmer said, as she looked around as the slaughter around her, so many victims sacrificed on the alter…

"Uh…guys…" Buzz Bomb said, and as Jinx and Shimmer looked at him he pointed at the floor.

"Are the pictures SUPPOSED to do that?"

Jinx and Shimmer looked down, down on the mass of photos where Sadako was…photos that were fading away, and even as the knife of fear struck Jinx in the heart again they faded away completely, leaving nothing but black exposed film.

"Oh NO!" She screamed.

As the TV behind them went clear, as the static was replaced by a black and white shot.

Of a very familiar well.

It wasn't over yet.

"…This means something…well, aside from the fact that we're even more doomed then we were before." Buzz Bomb said.

A white hand emerged from the well.

"AHHH! Shimmer! Quick! More pictures!" Jinx yelled. Shimmer raised the Camera Obscura…

And found no more flashes would emerge. She was again out of film.

"Empty!" Shimmer said, tossing the camera on the ground.

Sadako emerged from the well, a picture perfect replica of the film.

"The TV! Smash the TV!" Jinx yelled, as she ran up and hit it with her cast. All that did was throw her backwards and send a surge of agony shooting up her arm.

And Sadako began walking towards the screen.

"Remind me again why this is a bad thing?" Buzz Bomb asked.

"She'll come out and kill us all!" Shimmer yelled.

Jinx ran in again, having yanked a nightstick off the body of one of the dead drones. She smashed it directly into the center of the screen…and was violently tossed away again, the TV unharmed.

"And have any of our efforts been successful so far?" Buzz Bomb asked.

"No! Help us!" Shimmer cried, as she procured a gun from another Hive drone and began firing. Sparks shot from the television as the bullets were deflected, and Shimmer yelled and dove on the ground to avoid the ricochets.

"…All right. I'll help." Buzz Bomb said.

"What took you so long?" Jinx yelled as she tried to whack the TV with the nightstick again and got nowhere.

"I was debating turning on you and siding with her, but I just realized I'd hate working for a woman." Buzz Bomb said, as he snapped up his lasers and fired away.

The lasers bounced off the television.

"HEY! QUIT GOD-MODDING!" Buzz Bomb yelled.

And Sadako drew closer…

Jinx tried the nightstick a third time. This time, the reaction threw her across the entire room.

"Ah screw it. Here's my good deed for the year." Buzz Bomb said, as he flew up and lanced forward, seizing onto the television and yanking it off its pedestal. The power coursed through him, but Buzz Bomb held on as he slammed the TV into the ground, and again, and…

The TV yanked itself from his hands and Buzz Bomb was also violently repelled, as the TV floated back up to the pedestal.

Sadako was almost to the screen…

"We have to stop it!" Jinx screamed as she tried to get up.

"Suppose we just unplug it?" Buzz Bomb asked.

"There IS no plug!" Jinx yelled. "Wait, Shimmer! Turn the TV into something!"

"What?" Shimmer yelled.

"ANYTHING! JUST STOP THE MOVIE!"

Shimmer pushed up on to her feet and ran for the television, her hands out…

And the shadow spewed out from the TV set, slamming into Shimmer and throwing her away. Jinx screamed in surprise, even as the darkness continued to emerge from the TV, reaching out and consuming the ceiling, then the walls…

As Sadako reached the screen. She began to raise her arms.

"No…escape…" The terrible voice whispered: it was coming from the shadows themselves, as the darkness consumed everything around the three. "This is…our…world…we…ALWAYS…WIN…"

And figures began to appear in the darkness. Familiar figures.

Jinx went numb with shock.

The boogeymen were back.

Shimmer whimpered and fell onto her rear as her legs gave out. A tiny part of her eye caught motion, but she was too fixated on the shadowy creatures emerging from the darkness to give it much notice.

And Sadako began to emerge, even as the boogeymen continued to advance.

Jinx's head darted around, trying to look at everything.

"We…will…get you…by any means…by claw…by knife…by machete…" The voice snarled.

And Jinx, as she looked around, realized one more strange thing.

Flense's body was gone.

"By axe…by chainsaw…BY DEATH ITSELF…"

And Flense reared up in front of Sadako as she emerged from the television set.

Her black eye burned into his soul.

As he thrust out his hand and tore into the VCR, pulling the copy of The Ring from it.

"Bye bye." Flense said.

And he smashed the tape over Sadako's head.

The shriek filled the entire room, even as light exploded from the television and consumed the shadows, a shriek of unholy wrath and rage, as Jinx felt the world go upside down around her, as giant flashes of red and white consumed everything, the entire school lighting up in the brilliance, that malevolent howl piercing through her ears…

And then being drawn away, drawn back across the chasm, as everything was once again consumed by darkness.

---

Light once more.

Jinx found herself getting up, not aware she had been thrown to the floor. She blinked as she tried to clear her vision.

She turned her head slightly.

Platinum Blonde was sitting near her. Her head back on and her eyes blinking.

"AHHH!" Jinx yelled, scrambling away a bit, causing Platinum Blonde to start.

"Ah! What is it? What's going on? Ce qui s'est produit…" Platinum Blonde muttered as she blinked. "Did I just have a nightmare? I can remember…terrible things…"

"Antoinette!" Jinx said.

"…Yes?" Platinum Blonde replied.

"You're…alive!"

"…Why wouldn't I…oh my…" Platinum Blonde said, as flashes occurred to her. "What happened? Did I die…did this all happen? Was it all…why is everyone in the same room?"

And as Jinx looked around, she realized everyone was getting up, most as confused as Platinum Blonde.

And Jinx, to her even greater surprise, realized that she no longer felt that painful, terrible pressure inside her, that her ribs no longer hurt, and neither did her arm. She got up, testing her ankle. Completely healed, like nothing had happened.

And then she saw Flense, leaning on the television, taking long slow breaths, as he stared at the ground. The television that was now just one of several, in a room that was pristine if you discounted it being filled with people.

"Flense!" Jinx said, running over. "What happened? Did any of this…was it real?"

"…It was…" Flense said, sounding very tired. "You were attacking the wrong thing. When you said the movies had merged…you assumed that they were both next to each other…but in reality…that wasn't quite it. One was on top of the VCR…and the other was…in it. In play." Flense said, as he held up the videotape of The Ring, also restored. "I cut the connection. Movie's over. Strike the set, hand out the paychecks. And you know as well as I do that everything in movies is fake."

"BARAN!" Came a happy cry, and Jinx turned to see Shimmer leaping into the arms of her resurrected brother, who wasn't quite sure what had happened but had enough of an idea to know that this was a good thing. Elsewhere, a sobbing Scorcher was holding onto Floral like she would never let go again, as the other Elementals gravitated to them.

Jinx was suddenly aware of a low dark chuckling coming from Flense, and she realized something.

His voice was different.

"Damn." Flense said.

And sparks suddenly erupted from Flense's apparatus, and as Jinx stepped back his image wavered, distorted…and clipped out.

Revealing a very familiar white-clad figure.

"Hello." Savior said.

Jinx's eyes went as wide as they could, as she staggered back, falling on her rear in surprise.

"…You…you're…"

"Not who I appeared to be. I know." Savior said. "Hide in plain sight, I always say."

"HEY! HOW THE HELL DID HE GET IN HERE!" Came a yell, and Jinx realized that Savior had been spotted, by Billy Numerous actually. But the yell quickly brought everyone else's attention to bear on the Titan, who looked around with bleak amusement.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive." Savior said.

A mass of laser points appeared on Savior, as the drones all aimed their guns at him, and he slowly stepped away from the TV and raised his hands in surrender.

"…Yes! No matter what else I do, there is officially someone else that everyone will be more mad at!" Buzz Bomb celebrated.

"Someone get Blood." Said a drone.

"Why isn't he here?"

"I dunno. Too fresh a kill to move here?"

And Jinx remembered.

"Nightwalker!" She said, and turned and ran out of the room.

Savior sighed and looked around him, wondering if his silver tongue would work this time.

---

"Nightwalker!" Jinx called as she ran down the hallway. The final trek through the hell corridors had screwed up her sense of direction, but now that the essence was banished again and its warping influence gone, she could tell the way she was going much easier.

As Nightwalker's eyes blinked open in surprise, amazed. It had all been black, and then…all gone.

Jinx rounded the corner, and saw the black-clad figure starting to get up.

"Nightwalker!" She said, as she ran towards the vigilante. "You're alive! You're ok! You're…"

Jinx came up short as she realized Nightwalker's helmet was still off.

As the black-clad teen turned a long mane of red hair towards Jinx and looked at her.

"You're a GIRL?" Jinx said incredulously.

Indeed she was, exposed as Savior had been. Behind the helmet, Nightwalker was actually quite lovely, as she stared in shock on Jinx's face…and then the realization came fully to her that her game was up.

"…Shit." She said. Deprived of the helmet muffling, her voice was soft and breathy, sounding about as intimidating as a Twinkie.

"But…huh…wha…?" Jinx said, thoroughly confused.

As Nightwalker stood up, picked up her helmet, and walked off with a steady, determined stride. Before Jinx realized it she was already around the corner.

"…Hey! Wait!" Jinx said, chasing after him…after her, her, Jinx reminded herself. She was stupefied. She'd never even had a clue.

---

Brother Blood had a headache again, and he was in a royally foul mood as he stalked down the corridor, accompanied by a few drones. He wasn't quite sure what had happened: he had been meeting with Control Freak and then he had been digging and then something had hurt him or maybe killed him and he wasn't sure if it was real or a dream or a hallucination or something else entirely. But he knew what his soldiers had reported: one of his Hive members had been exposed as a Titan. Blood grit his teeth in rage: how in the HELL had those blasted children managed to pull one up over him AGAIN?

Well, Blood would find out, and if the Titan was behind his strange memories, Blood would find that out too, and he'd make sure he paid for it, as Blood stepped into the TV room.

Gizmo was there now, called on his communicator: indeed everyone was there except Jinx and Nightwalker, though Blood didn't notice that (Control Freak wasn't there either: when he woke up he knew enough to realize he would be blamed for this and had had second thoughts about joining the Hive, and had made his exit swift). Everyone was mostly murmuring to themselves, trying to figure out just what had happened. It seemed that everyone who had died had blurry memories of the night: only Shimmer, Buzz Bomb, and Rocko (who hadn't died, just been forced apart) had a clear recollection of what had gone on. And not many people wanted to believe them.

The room went silent as Blood entered, everyone standing at attention or at least giving Blood theirs.

"…Does anyone know what just happened?" Blood asked.

A cacophony of voices filled the room.

"Never mind! I'll debrief later! Right now I just want to speak to one person…" Blood said, as he stalked across the room.

Savior had been bound with handcuffs, and he was in a kneeling position, four drones holding guns on him. Not the first person Blood had expected to see, but he would do.

"So! You thought your little group of 'heroes' could pull one over on my organization, AGAIN!" Blood yelled.

"Thought? Did. If that reaction hadn't shorted out my holopin array you still wouldn't have a clue. Then again that's just par for the course for you, eh Blood?" Savior snarked.

Blood backhanded Savior, knocking him to the ground, and then reached down and grabbed the teen by the front of his shirt, yanking him up face to face.

"Your breed has a dangerous lack of respect, child. It's high time you learned the folly of that." Blood said, as his eyes glowed red. "You want to spy on me? I think turnabout is definitely fair play."

Savior's eyes glowed red as Blood forced his way into his mind.

And then he grinned.

"Sorry Blood, tried this already. Got any more flavors?" Savior taunted.

Blood screamed in rage and threw Savior to the ground as he realized his mind control wasn't working, AGAIN! Savior just darkly chuckled to himself: he may yet die horribly, but at least with the chip in his brain Blood couldn't turn him against his teammates. Stealing Cyborg's technology had been one of the best things he had ever done, in retrospect.

"Oh, you LAUGH, child." Blood said as he stepped back, red energy crackling to life on his hand, and the drones around Savior backed away so they wouldn't be potentially caught in the area effect. "It will be the last thing you ever do in this life."

"Life? You mean like the life I just gave back to you?" Savior said as he got to his feet. "The only reason you claim any victory at all is because of me. What I knew. What I did."

"What I knew, what I did!" Blood said, mocking Savior's voice. "You're a hero! You're stupid! I'm not! I am a villain! And it's time you learned just WHY!"

"A villain. Who couldn't give a damn." Savior muttered. "Does he speak for all of you?"

"Don't try and turn them against me! This is my school! I am supreme here!"

"Your supremacy was usurped. Death reigned supreme here last night. It touched you all. I took it back. I gave you back your teammates, your friends, your FAMILY." Savior said. "So do what you feel is right in that retrospect."

"BE QUIET!" Blood bellowed, as he thrust back his arm.

Scorcher seized it.

"Let him go." She said quietly.

"WHAT?" Blood said as his head jerked in Scorcher's direction.

"A life for a life. Let. Him. Go." Scorcher said, as her hair flared higher.

"MISS FOSTER, you forget who makes the decisions here. Now release me, or the knowledge I possess will forever be denied to you." Blood said, grinning wickedly. "The accursed Titan may have brought back the rest of your brood, but your fiancée remains conspicuously absent."

Scorcher stared.

And then Blood yelled as her hand heated up, burning his metal arm.

"You have given me nothing. You may never. He gave me my reason for living back. If Henry was alive, he'd understand. Now LET. HIM. GO."

"YOU…"

"I even SEE your eyes start to glow red, your head will glow red next. You lose this round Blood. It may cost me, but I'll pay it." Scorcher said, as she let Blood's arm go.

And Blood looked around, and he saw the look on Scorcher's face mirrored in most of the Hive.

And as angry as he was, he realized he was outmatched here. He'd have to yield…or seem to. At the moment he couldn't control or punish the students for their defiance, even he couldn't beat them all if they ganged up on him, and from their current expressions it seemed clear they could and would do just that. So for now he'd wait…bide his time…slowly reestablish his power, and when it was all said and done, he would make sure they all suffered the consequences.

As much as the realization of what that meant he had to do now left a sour taste in his mouth, as he turned back to Savior.

"All right…but know this! Your special status, 'Flense'? Consider it downgraded. You are now officially below, say, HIM." Blood said, pointing to Buzz Bomb.

"Whoo hoo! Someone else on toilet duty!" Buzz Bomb celebrated, and then everyone glared at him and he shut up.

"Oh really." Savior said.

"Yes!" Blood snapped, trying to cover the lameness with seeming satisfaction. It faded as soon as Savior held up his handcuffs, picked and unlocked, like he could have done it at any time and had just waited. Blood ground his teeth again.

"You forgot the part where I care." Savior said, as he dropped the cuffs at Blood's feet.

"If I could make it any lower, I would! You are the absolute worst villain I have EVER seen!" Blood snapped.

Savior smirked.

"'If there be devils, would I were a devil, to live and burn in everlasting fire, so I might have your company in hell…but to torment you with my bitter tongue." Savior quoted, and smirked again. "See you next time we kick your ass Blood."

And Savior pushed past the leader of the Hive and walked out, the crowd parting before him. Some of them looked at him with hatred, but most seemed either neutral…or grateful.

Flay was standing near the exit. Savior glanced at him.

"I'd shake your hand, but it would cost me later." Flay whispered.

"No need." Savior replied. "I know."

And with that Savior left the room.

Blood glared after him for a few seconds.

"…ALL RIGHT WHY ARE YOU STANDING AROUND? HALLOWEEN IS OVER! CLEAN UP THIS MESS! PUT EVERYTHING AWAY! AND SCAN EVERY INCH OF THIS DAMN BASE TO MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS GONE! MOVE!" Blood bellowed, and everyone began falling over themselves to try and do what Blood said and get out of his way as he stalked out of the room.

"Well, all things considered, this was a good night! Now I just…" Buzz Bomb began.

Something jabbed him hard in the side, and Buzz Bomb whirled to see a unit of Hive drones all aiming their guns at him.

"Mister Bomb…is that right?" Belinda said with false respect. "I believe you said something about rigging the whole school to blow?"

Buzz Bomb's good mood vanished as quickly as Blood's.

---

It took Jinx a little time, but she eventually figured out where Nightwalker had gone: his…or her room.

And she was correct.

And though she was surprised to see Nightwalker packing, on another level she wasn't surprised at all.

"…You're leaving?" Jinx said.

"I have to." Nightwalker replied, as she continued to pack her ammo cases away into her suitcase.

"…Nightwalker, if this is about your secret…"

"It doesn't matter if you swear to keep it Llarenes. I think you could. But the illusion is lost, and once Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall, you can't put the pieces back together again." Nightwalker said as she turned away from the suitcase. She had the top of her outfit down, a sports bra covering her breasts, a fair sized B-cup. It was clear she'd had to tape the breasts down to pass as a male, and since they weren't tiny that probably hadn't been the most pleasant experience. The fact that she had borne it without giving a hint of discomfort showed Jinx how much she had wanted to keep this secret. "It only works if they don't know."

"Did Blood?"

"Blood was content to know he could control me. He didn't bother looking beyond the surface." Nightwalker said, as she returned to packing.

Jinx stood in the doorway for a bit, and then stepped in and closed it.

"Why?" She asked.

"You don't know?" Nightwalker replied.

"Maybe. But not entirely." Jinx said.

Nightwalker looked at her for a bit, and then sighed.

"Listen to me Jinx. Do I sound intimidating to you? Would you take me seriously?"

"…Nightwalker, I can't pass that judgment. I've seen what you're capable of…you're amazing…"

"Am I Jinx? And does that even matter?" Nightwalker said, as she shut another section of her suitcase. She sighed again.

"I was born in a small town buried in the Midwest Jinx, a hundred miles from anywhere as you might say, a real definition of a Podunk. The place was a throwback to the way people used to live. That had its advantages. It was a fairly safe place. It had its secrets, but no soul-shattering ones like the kind found in Shirley Jackson novellas. It was lucky enough to be self-sustaining. It was a good place…but like I said Jinx, it was a throwback. And that included the way we were treated. What we were expected to be."

Nightwalker resumed packing, talking all the while.

"I loved my family. My dad, my mom, my older brothers…we were happy…but only to a point. Because the hierarchy was set, and by the basis of my sex, I was always supposed to be on the bottom. And I wanted to be more, Jinx. They tried to label me a tomboy, and said I would grow out of it…it being my sense of independence. My mom was a sweet woman…but my dad made all the decisions, and she was happy to let him. It was the way it was. The wide world, yeah they tried other ways, but hey, look at the mess the wide world is in, right? This way kept everything working…so this way was it. If you don't fit, well…you have to be made to."

Nightwalker smiled, a hint of bitterness around her eyes.

"They never hit me, abused me, put me down…at least not outright. But every time I wanted to do something 'above my station'…well they just wouldn't let me. I wanted to play sports, the boys wouldn't let me. I wanted to learn how to fight, my dad wouldn't teach me. I wanted to learn more, they wouldn't advance me past grades that I was far above. They just did their best to make sure I stayed in my spot Jinx. That eventually, I'd grow to accept it. Only I never did. Because as I grew older, I got better then them Jinx. I could run faster, hit harder, think and learn quicker then any male in my town, child, teenage or adult. They wouldn't teach me, so I found books and movies and anything else I could get my hands on and I taught myself. I don't know if I possess some kind of all-around metagene that allowed me to do this or if it was simply my determination and will…but I was better then them Jinx. I'm not bragging, I simply was. I never thought I was superior to them for it. I was raised better then that. All I wanted was for them to accept that just because it always worked for them didn't mean it would work for me. But they wouldn't Jinx. They couldn't."

The packing was done. Nightwalker closed her suitcase and stared at it.

"We may have been out of the way, but we weren't isolated. I could see, from the TV and the Internet, that there was more to living then what I knew. I knew that out there, I could find something different…and eventually, I did. You see, there was a fire. Friend of mine from school. I saved her life, and the life of her whole family, minus one. I dragged them all out of the burning building, and going back for the last, her older brother, I was overcome by the smoke. Luckily the fire department had arrived by then. One of the firefighters dragged the boy and I out. I went to the hospital, and as I recovered I thought this might be it. They'd finally have to accept they couldn't pidgeonhole me…"

Nightwalker's eyes were sad.

"Imagine my surprise when the fireman was being touted for saving all those lives. They gave him all the credit. In the reports I was just some silly girl who didn't know what she was doing. They knew what I did. They all did. But they accepted the story. Better that then making waves. Better that then change…change that could ruin the fragile little world they lived in. And once I realized that, that was it. I knew I didn't belong there and I couldn't stay there. So I left. I was fourteen."

"Fourteen?" Jinx said.

"Yeah, and lucky. I avoided most of the pitfalls of the world…my gifts helped. But Jinx…I found that when I left…yeah, I found something different. But it wasn't any better. I tried to find people who could help me, teach me more, show me my way…and I'm a good judge of character. But Jinx, everywhere I went…all men. They were in charge everywhere. Some wouldn't look me in the eye. Some didn't want to truly teach me because of my sex. Hell, some tried to break me to show me my 'place'. I learned a lot Jinx…you saw that for yourself. But I also learned that people simply would not take me seriously as long as they knew my sex." Nightwalker said, and then snickered. "Betelgeuse was surprised I had a gray magic field. He's right, those are immensely rare. You know how I got it? Ever heard of Klarion, the Witch Boy?"

"The supreme warlock Klarion?" Jinx said in shock.

"Yeah. They call him Witch Boy because he appears to be stuck in the form of a young boy. But when I met him, some huge messup had transformed him into a teenager. He eventually managed to turn himself back…but before he did he became…quite…enamored with me. Must have been a rush of hormones: you'd think he would be able to do better then chasing tail."

"You…"

"No. It was for services rendered: I helped him get an artifact that was a key to turning himself back. But I knew that part of the reason he gave me such a great gift instead of an average one was probably because the newly aged part of him wanted to get in my pants. That, and nothing more. And once that happened…I finally realized that it was never going to work. Not unless I changed myself."

"…Well…Nightwalker…I can understand that…but heck, some of the deadliest and most feared people on Earth in our fields are female. Lady Shiva, the new Batgirl…"

"I know…but I'm not them. Maybe one day, but not know. And I'm sick of it." Nightwalker said, as she pulled on and zipped up the upper half of her costume. "So I taped down my breasts and put on a helmet and passed myself off as a male. And they all vanished Jinx. True, some people were put off by my aloofness, but that was balanced and exceeded by the fact that people suddenly respected my skills, my abilities…who I am."

"…You shouldn't live a lie Nightwalker."

"Not a lie Jinx. A misdirection. I'm not ashamed of who I am. But until I truly find that out…it had to be that way. And now that you know…it won't work Jinx. I have to go elsewhere. You can't change my mind." Nightwalker said.

"So you are leaving."

"This night has taught me more then anything Blood could. But I still have more to learn. And not here." Nightwalker said, as she pulled her suitcase off the bed. "You're a good girl Jinx. You kept me alive. And you gave me something worth dying for. In this world, that's a true measure of a man…or a woman."

"…You did too…" Jinx said, and blushed suddenly. "Uh…sorry about…the med room thing…I was…uh…"

"You were confused Jinx. The essence…and something else. There's someone out there you have feelings for Jinx, and from the depth of your confusion, I'd say it's someone on the other side. Maybe even a Titan."

Jinx's eyes widened a bit.

"Don't look so shocked. I'm smarter then the average gal, remember." Nightwalker said, tapping her head. "My advice is to follow your heart girl. It can be hard, but it's for the best. Take it from me. I don't know where the future lies, but I know that it's better then anything that would have come to me in my home town."

"…Ok." Jinx said.

Nightwalker walked up to Jinx, and offered her a hand.

Jinx hugged her instead. Nightwalker was a bit taken aback, and then returned it.

"Will I ever see you again?" Jinx asked.

"Maybe." Nightwalker replied, and pressed the button to open the door. Blood was still yelling at Savior at this time, and the halls were empty. No one would see her leave.

"Oh Jinx…one more thing. About the med room thing…it was kind of sweet. But you're not my type."

And as Nightwalker left, Jinx thought that comment over…and then blushed to the roots of her hair.

"…Oh." Jinx said, as Nightwalker walked down the hall, dragging her case on wheels. She gave a brief wave. Jinx waved back, and then Nightwalker turned around the corner.

"…And just like that…he's gone." Jinx said.

---

By the time Savior left the room, Nightwalker was long gone, having hotwired a car and taken off for parts unknown.

Though he kept his face calm, Savior was quite relieved. He'd managed to talk his way out of the trouble after all. Of course, his mission was a wreck, and he'd little in the way of the information he had needed…but at least he was alive. Not just from Blood's wrath, but from surviving another night with the boogeymen.

His wounds were gone, like last time. Last time it had been a direct heart stab, and Uberjason thought he had matched said lethal wound…but the holopin disguise hadn't just changed Savior's look, it had altered his body size as well. Jason's supposed stab through his torso had in fact got through the area just under his armpit, the concentrated armor of his jacket bunched there providing the resistance Uberjason had attributed to Flense's apparatus. It had still sliced him pretty good (hence the blood trail), but with the Shimmer acting as stitches it was only a nasty flesh wound. The Shimmer undercover had also allowed him to take the original Jason side chop (it had hit a Shimmer barrier beneath his clothing, which hurt like a motherfucker but deflected the blade enough to avoid major damage), and to escape Sadako's drowning curse: the Shimmer had forced the water out of his lungs. That had been highly unpleasant, but it had worked, and it had allowed Savior to get back up and finish the job…thanks to Jinx, whose yell of 'Just stop the movie' had made Savior realize what he had to really do to finally end the night of horror.

He'd been lucky, considering how wrong he had gambled. The battle with Uberjason had made him briefly pass out with shock and exhaustion, but he'd woken up after a bit and made his way back upstairs. While hunting for survivors, he had found the TV room, covered with bodies, all laid out in display, much like how many slashers liked to do with their victims. A quick search of the room had turned up the tape, a tape Savior had recognized. After all, he'd only spent the whole month of October studying horror films in case history repeated itself, before he had volunteered for the undercover job. As for pretending to be a body…Savior could only chalk that up to the unknown. He'd just about been ready to leave when he'd felt it, a roiling sensation in his guts, and he knew that wherever the evil was, it was coming his way. Focused on its targets, it had never known Savior was there, and hence he'd just lain down, played dead…and managed to win anyway despite guessing wrongly in his choice of tactic.

Well, he'd always been good at thinking on his feet. Too bad that hadn't kept his holopin disguise from shorting out.

Savior made a brief side trip into a room and came out with Nigel's weapons tied in a bundle. He'd brought them upstairs and left them there to send back to the Tower later, but he guessed he had to carry them now, as he picked them up and headed on.

He found the hallway that Melanie had run across when it had all began. The doors were open now, the lockdown canceled, the shield disabled. As far as the base knew, nothing had ever happened.

Savior had almost reached the door when it opened, and someone came in, heading the other way. The sun backlit her for a second (morning. Huh. More time had passed then he thought), obscuring her before she walked closer.

Savior found himself looking at a girl with blonde hair, a nice face, a fair body, wrapped in white cloaks…and the coldest, deadest eyes Savior had ever seen. She made Sadako look warm-hearted.

"Do I know you?" Lucinda DaFoe asked.

Savior just stared, blinking once. Lucinda decided the strange white-haired man wasn't worth any attention and walked on, calmly passing Savior and heading down the hallway. She'd been working for Blood for some time now, but she hadn't cared to know of the enemies Blood faced, and hence had never seen the Titans. She did not recognize Savior.

Savior would not realize until much later how good a thing that was.

Savior stared after Lucinda, unable to believe the depth of the darkness. He'd seen glints of such things before, in sociopathic little gangsters who thought they were tough and poisoned minds who no longer believed that the rules of society applied to them. But with them, the darkness was projected out, an attempt to show strength and supposed superiority. This darkness didn't do that…it didn't have to: it was so deep and terrible it drew the normal world in, obliterating it under sheer entropy.

Savior swallowed as he reflected on the sight, and he realized that for all their terror, for all their power, for all their ability to deal death…the monsters of horror forever paled next to the truly great evils. Those belonged solely to mankind.

Savior turned and exited the school. A few minutes later, he found a car, from which a very sleepy eyed Melanie was exiting. She had partied too hard: Blood was gonna chew her ass out…

"Hey do you know…" Melanie said as Savior walked past her, and much to her surprise he actually got in her car and somehow started it without keys. "HEY! THAT'S MY CAR!"

"Then report it stolen." Savior shot back, and drove away.

---

Several hours later.

The members of the Hive were in the main cafeteria, both students and drones. Blood had called for a meeting. Everything had been put away, and no trace had been found of the chaos magic that had so twisted the building, but as most students had gathered, that wouldn't be enough for Blood. And it wasn't.

There were a few conspicuous absences. Lucinda was off doing her own thing, as usual, and the students preferred it that way. Nightwalker had strangely disappeared as well: Jinx had said that after the night he'd had, on top of dying, he'd decided the Hive was more trouble then it was worth and left. Everyone had pretty much accepted the story: only Shimmer had thought it was fishy, and she'd kept her thoughts to herself.

To Blood, losing another student just one more weight on a seemingly endless pile of them, and now it was time for some payback.

"I STILL don't know just what the hell happened last night, but I know one thing: all of you are going to be graded on it!"

"WHAT?" Was the general response.

"Oh don't worry, this won't take long, because you ALL FAILED!" Blood roared. "The lot of you were in total disarray! You abandoned the only leaders among the lot of you, and most of you died pathetically!"

"That could apply to you too, dipstick." Floral muttered at the Elemental table.

"DO I HEAR TALKING? THERE SHOULD NOT BE TALKING!"

Silence.

"As I said, PATHETIC! Only ONE of you did anything of value and only one of you gets a passing grade for this 'combat exercise'. He showed a great degree of tenacity and foresight, and really came through for the school for a whole!"

The Hive looked around in confusion, wondering just who that was. Juryrig and Flay pondered if it was them, while Gizmo decided it was him and started puffing himself up. Jinx held her tongue and didn't say the only two people who deserved such an award were no longer at the school.

"Buzz Bomb, with his brilliant Mutually Assured Destruction plan!"

The noise of the united facevault sounded like a bomb going off.

"Yes! I win! I am the champion!" Buzz Bomb said, as he got up and danced on his table. He'd been down the whole day since the drones had forced him to remove and disarm each of his bombs, threatening to tell Blood of said bombs and how they would have blown up his school if Buzz Bomb didn't turn them all off. Much to everyone's surprise, it seemed Blood had known all along.

That didn't mean everyone accepted it.

"………..WHAT?" Jinx yelled.

"I object!" Rocko yelled, pounding the table.

"I back that objection!" Mammoth said, doing likewise.

"Really? I DON'T CARE!" Blood roared back. "He is the only one of you lot who accomplished anything!"

"He abandoned us like twelve times, was annoying and cowardly and incompetent, and then he tried to kill us all!" Gizmo yelled.

"The one who saved all our asses and brought YOU back to life headmaster, was a frikkin' TITAN!" Jinx added.

"May I cite items 44 and 81 of the Villain's Creed, which you all should have memorized." Blood said. "44: I am a villain, ergo I have no needs greater then self-preservation at all costs! 81: A villain must always have a self-destruct device ready for any base or weapon of mass destruction he makes! Buzz Bomb did both admirably. True, he lacked in execution but hey, that's why you're students instead of professionals."

More grumbling.

"Be quiet! We have wasted enough time! Your party has resulted in a severe drop in efficiency, therefore training drills will be doubled for the next three days, and the entire base is on lockdown for the next week!"

Loud groans.

"Shut up! Maybe next time you won't prove yourselves to all be incompetent gits! Now get out of my sight!" Blood yelled, and then decided that himself leaving would be easy and did so, disappearing in the nearest door.

"Can'tyoudoanythingDanielle?" Zippy complained.

"Like to Sal, but I'm already pressing my luck. Let's let him cool down." Scorcher replied.

"Can you do anything about THAT?" Wilby asked, pointing at the still dancing Buzz Bomb.

"I'd roast him, but that'd be a waste of good fire." Scorcher replied.

At her table, Jinx sighed.

"So, Jinx, your friend Nightwalker…he really left?" Gizmo asked, suddenly beside her.

"Yeah."

"Henh. Knew he didn't have what it took."

Jinx glared at Gizmo.

"Whoa lighten up Llarenes! You still got us!" Gizmo said, pointing to Mammoth, Shimmer, and himself. Shimmer was petting Mittens, who had finally calmed down enough to let his master carry him around.

"Yeah, for better or for worse." Jinx replied.

"Speaking of for worse, why don't we get out of here before Blood comes back with more punishments." Mammoth said, and the Troika (plus Shimmer) started heading off.

Buzz Bomb danced into their path.

"Ah, Jinx! Reconsidered considering that I was the only one who got a passing grade?"

WHAM!

The punch knocked Buzz Bomb flat on his ass. That was not surprising.

What was that was Shimmer had thrown it.

"…Sis?" Mammoth said, as Shimmer lowered and shook out her hand.

"I have my limits big brother. Come on, Mittens is hungry."

"BWAHAHAHAHA! ONE PUNCH! ONE PUNCH!" Gizmo laughed.

"Strange. I swear I've heard that one before." Jinx said as the Troika walked off.

"Say guys, what happened?" Flay asked as he, Seemore, and some Hive drones including Belinda joined the leaving group.

"Selinda knocked Buzz flat out with one punch."

"Shimmer punched someone OUT? That someone was BUZZ BOMB? And I MISSED it? God, I'm depressed…" Flay said as the group left.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhh…it's lonely at the top." Buzz Bomb groaned.

---

"Man…all that preparation, all that readying, all that setting up…and for what? Nothing! We get ready for a war and we don't even get a freaking scout force." Beast Boy complained as Cyborg finished resetting the computer so the defenses were at a lower ebb and the whole system wasn't wired to blow the hell out of anything that breathed on it.

"You sound like you're disappointed." Cyborg said.

"Well no…but come on man! I was ready this year! Last year I got hooked and whacked around and hit with machetes and all that, but THIS year I could have shown them! I'd have taught them all a lesson! After they were done with Beast Boy, they'd never want to come out of their corner of reality again!" Beast Boy said, as he shadowboxed.

"Hey, someone's coming up the bridge." Terra said, looking at a computer monitor.

Beast Boy screamed and hid behind Cyborg.

"My hero." Terra said sarcastically.

"Someone's coming up the bridge?" Robin said from his computer, as he tried to call up the security cam footage.

"Is it a monster?" Starfire asked, flying over.

"Can I hit it with my stick?" Scalpel said as he too bounded over.

"It's…it's SAVIOR?" Robin said in confusion, as the camera zoomed in.

It was indeed Savior, who had looked up at the zoomed in camera and waved.

"…Is he carrying my weapons?" Scalpel asked.

Robin whirled in his chair, about to call for Raven…and found her already floating there.

"Ah…Raven, bring me and Cy out there. Just in case."

"Affirmative." Raven said, as Cyborg jumped over, as Raven enveloped both of them in her cloak and vanished.

Savior was not all that surprised when the three appeared in front of him.

"That you Savior?" Cyborg said, his cannon armed just in case.

"We'll see. Savior, what's my real name and your name changed to numbers and written backwards?"

"That's a stupid question. You're stupid Robin." Savior replied.

"It's him. That's the correct answer." Robin said. Cyborg glanced sideways at him. "Do what they wouldn't expect. Savior uh…not that I'm not glad to see you…but what happened to the spy mission?"

"You know Operation Market Garden? It struck again." Savior replied. Robin groaned.

"Raven, take us back."

"As you wish."

---

"Ok, now just what DID happen?" Robin asked several minutes later, as Savior sat at the kitchen table, sipping strong tea. Everyone was there except Scalpel and Sophie, who had gone to put his weapons away.

"Well Robin, you remember that incident last year? Crazy shit with movies, we all nearly died, etc etc?"

"Yeah, we prepared but it didn't happen ag…NO."

"Yep. Guess who was a guest of the Hive? Control Freak. And it happened all over again. It was pretty bad, but I made it out. Make a note of this Robin: the effect of the reality warp is completely reversed once the key is found. Unlike us, a lot of people died in the Hive. They came back afterward."

"They did? That's…interesting." Robin said.

"That's dangerous. Chaos magic on that scale can cause serious damage to the fabric of reality. For all we know…" Raven said.

"Yes yes we know Rae." Savior said.

"Don't interrupt me." Raven said, hitting Savior on the shoulder.

"Hey, you're the ones who got a night off. Me…not so much." Savior said.

"I knew it wasn't safe. I should have…" Starfire said, wringing her hands.

"Kory…it's done. You couldn't have done anything." Savior said. "Raven…could you do me a favor?"

"Yes Noel?"

"Your magic books. Go fetch the…" Savior said, and then said a word that sounded like he was trying to vomit up a flaming pinecone.

"Whowhatthis?" Gauntlet said.

"I want to make sure there's no residual effects on me." Savior said, as Raven nodded and vanished in the shadows. "Unfortunately, the event broke my cover. I tried my best to keep it, even stayed 'in character' when I was alone, but when I reversed the effects like you did last year it caused too much feedback in my disguise systems. Sorry guys."

"Not your fault. What did you get for info?

"Little to none."

"Great. Well we'll comb through it. This is the boring part guys, you may as well go." Robin said.

"Race you to the leftover candy!" Beast Boy said, turning into a greyhound and running off.

"No way! You ate it all last year!" Gauntlet yelled as he gave chase, the rest of the Titans engaging in the mad race, leaving Savior, Robin, and Cyborg.

"I guess I better go get Dopplegang Man and tell him his mission's been cut short." Cyborg said.

"Pay him his full fee anyway. I don't want someone who can look like anyone holding a grudge against us." Robin said. Cyborg nodded and left the room.

"Ok Noel, what did you only want to tell ME?" Robin said: he knew Noel's cues.

"Well, like I said, I only got the most basic info Robin. Whatever the Hive is building, it's BIG. But I couldn't get any kind of a location, and after I was exposed their security will be pretty much impenetrable. We better get ready Robin. Whatever's coming, it's gonna be bad."

"I gathered that." Robin replied.

"I hate to add more bad news to the list." Raven said as she reappeared. "That book Noel asked for? It's not for purifying spells. It's for dark forces, their manipulations…and their genesis'."

"What does that mean?" Robin asked.

"Kory was afraid we opened a door to some bad place. I think we may have done more then that. I think we may have, inadvertently…created a bad place."

"What?"

"Chaos does not easily take a form on its own. It has to be manipulated…whether those manipulations are deliberate or accidental. Noel, tell me what you saw."

Savior spent five minutes speaking of the 'essence', how it had grown stronger the longer it was in the Hive, how it had seemingly achieved its own malefic sentience and had used and manipulated the elements and 'rules' that had spilled into the Hive to not just promote death but ensure it.

"I could feel it going back. It fought the dismissal, all the way. I barely managed to get rid of it. I just hope all of it actually went. And even if I did get rid of all of it, that's only going to make it angrier. If. " Savior said.

"So you're saying that when this happened last year, we didn't so much let the twisted reality of the horror films into your reality as we so much…made said twisted reality?"

"In a sense. In the accident last year, we may very well have defined the realm it came from, put a face on nameless darkness. We also forged a connection to it in the process. We banished it last year before it could stay long enough to gain strength, and none of us died. Time and death fueled it this time, and only luck allowed Savior to banish it…Next time…"

"Is there going to be a next time?" Robin asked.

"You know Hollywood Robin." Savior said. "They love trilogies."

---

"How do you do it Slade?" The Lord said, as he watched Slade finish counting up his money.

"If I revealed my secrets, dark one, then how could I keep winning?" Slade said. "That aside, I know the types that won't let death define them. That Rocko golem is one."

"Hey, I was close too."

"Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, as the saying goes Lord. Though I must admit, you handled your loss considerably better then the lunatic handled his win." Slade said. Indeed, Jack's celebration of his 'man' surviving had degenerated into a screaming fury when said man was revealed to be Savior. The Lord had ejected Jack from the bar for his outburst and slammed him into a wall a few times for good measure. Killjoy had calmly counted out his money and left when Scorcher had died, and the White Hole was hitting up every passerby for money to cover her losses until the Lord ordered her to get back to cleaning up.

"Enough chit-chat Lordy Lordy. Time to get ready for this week's orders. You promised to spruce up the bar and it's about time you put your money where your mouth is. Lack of money notwithstanding." The Sorceress sad, dumping a catalogue in front of the Lord.

"Ha ha. You spend the whole story thinking that one up?" The Lord said. Slade had left, so the Lord began paging through the catalogue.

"And don't pick out pieces of junk!" The Sorceress yelled from the back.

"I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING WOMAN!" The Lord yelled back, as he continued pouring over the catalogue.

He stopped at a page. There was a nice looking orb. Probably look good over the bar. Not bad in terms of price either.

"Hmmmmmmm…" The Lord said, as he studied the ad, writing down the name on a piece of paper.

A crash sounded nearby, and the Lord sighed and headed into the kitchen.

The pad remained on the counter, the words staring up from it.

ORB OF ARCHETYPAL.

---

Credits begin rolling, as 'Don't Fear The Reaper' by Blue Oyster Cult plays over them.

Slasher Star Classification and Stats

Returning Slashers

Michael Myers (Carpenterus Hallowseveus) and Jason Voorhees as Uberjason (Goodgodus whywontyoudieus).

Cropsy
Janitorus hedgeclipperyourass
Played By: Lou David
Footage:
(1981) The Burning by Tony Maylam
Body Count: 9

Co-written with Jedi-And and Bobcat.

William 'Billy' Caldwell
Thereisnos santaclaus
Played By: Robert Brian Wilson
Footage:
(1984) Silent Night, Deadly Night by Charles E. Sellier, Jr.
Body Count: 8

Did you see what the chapter titles spelled?

Angela Baker
Nosin infrunuvher
Played By: Felissa Rose, Pamela Springsteen
Footage:
(1983) Sleepaway Camp by Robert Hiltzik
(1988) Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers by Michael A. Simpson
(1989) Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland by Michael A. Simpson
Body Count: 45

Yeah that's where I got the title. Sue me.

Betelgeuse
Burtonus randy andhow
Played By: Michael Keaton
Footage:
(1989) Beetlejuice by Tim Burton
Body Count: Zero!

At least I'm PRETTY sure it's zero…
Betelgeuse: I wuz robbed…

The Nemesis
Stubbornes STARS
Played By: A bunch of polygons
'Footage':
(1999) Resident Evil 3: Nemesis by Capcom
Body Count: 4 definite, god knows how many zombies that crossed its path.

I'm not counting the movie version. That was an insult to the Nemesis.

The Creeper
Mcguyverus goddamnuglyus
Played By: Jonathon Breck
Footage:
(2001) Jeepers Creepers by Victor Salva
(2003) Jeepers Creepers 2 by Victor Salva
Body Count: 19 fresh, untold hundreds stretching back for centuries.

Congratulations, I Come Anon(ymously), for figuring out my whole frikkin' plot by Part 4. No wait, congratulations isn't the word. What's the word? Oh yes. GO AWAY. Ok that's two words, but you deserve it you friggin' plot…figurer…outerer…MOVING ON…

Sil
Ovulastus constantum
Played By: Nastasha Henstridge
Footage:
(1995) Species by Roger Donaldson
Body Count: 14

I wanted to use The Ramones' 'Pet Semetary' for the credits, but I was sure the chorus would confuse people and it defied my efforts to alter/parody it. Oh well.

The Tall Man…
Demonicus anemicus
Played by: Angus Scrimm
Footage:
(1979) Phantasm by Don Coscarelli
(1988) Phantasm II by Don Coscarelli
(1994) Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead by Don Coscarelli
(1998) Phantasm: OblIVion by Don Coscarelli
Body Count: 79 (plus a whole lot more suggested)

Go rent Child's Play 2 this year. The ending sequence is worth it.

…and the Silver Sphere (Sentinel)
Forkballim minddrillicus
Played By: A lot of overworked and underpaid puppeteers
Footage: (see above)
Body Count: 5 people, 2 hands, 1 ear, 4 doors, and 1 rat

If I do a third one, it will be, at the very least, SHORTER!

Pyramid Head
Phallicus metallicus
Played By: More advanced groups of polygons
'Footage':
(2001) Silent Hill 2 by Konami
Body Count: 2
Rape Count: 1
Creepy Count: 10,000,000,000,000

Be sure to check my Danny Phantom Halloween one shot as well. What? I ran out of stuff to say here! You try and think of constant wittiness after writing a frikkin 328 page horror story!

Leatherface
Crazyassim chainsawwielderum
Played By: Gunnar Hanson, Bill Johnson, R.A Mihailoff, Robert Jacks, Andrew Bryniarski
Footage:
(1974) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Tobe Hooper
(1986) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 by Tobe Hooper
(1990) Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III by Jeff Burr
(1994) The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Kim Henkel
(2003) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Marcus Nispel
Body Count: 17

Freddy: I should have come back too!
Quiet you.

Samara/Sadako
I would tell you, but then YOU'D DIE IN SEVEN DAYS
Played By: (Sadako) Miura Ayane, Kimura Tae, Inou Rie, Saeki Hinako, Nakama Yukie (Samara) Daveigh Chase, Kelly Stables
Footage:
(Sadako)
(1998) Ringu by Nakata Hideo
(1998) Raisen by Iida Jouji
(1999) Ring 2 by Nakata Hideo
(2000) Ring O by Tsuruta Norio
(Samara)
(2002) The Ring by Gore Verkinski
(2005) The Ring 2 by Hideo Nakata
Body Count: 9 for Sadako, 11 for Samara, and who knows how many else from the curse…

And we're done.

Or maybe not.

---

The room was dark and quiet, having been locked up for the night. All the stuff from the aborted Halloween party had been stored there: tables, couches, televisions…

And sitting on a crate…

"I just hope all of it actually went…"

The Camera Obscura.

It sat there on the crate, forgotten by Shimmer. Forgotten by everyone.

And those who do not learn from the past…

Well, you know the rest.

As the nearest TV turned itself on, despite not being plugged in, and the room was lit by a faint glow, the TV hissing static.

And maybe we briefly see the outline of a hand pressed up against the screen.

Maybe.

As we pan away, leaving the room, looked over by the glowing television.

And telling ourselves we don't hear the howl of violent, unbelievable evil.

The End…

…?