Last time, Harry & friends were hurtled to the base of The Ramblers, a group for The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. After meeting several members, our heroes were unconvinced that The Ramblers are all that they say they are. On with the show!

Chapter 18: Fighting Infeiri

"This is the help we were promised?" asked Ron. "I guess so." Harry replied. "They are the ones The Stranger said would keep Voldemort busy?" asked Herminoe. "It looks that way." Said Harry. "Just say it, we're doomed." Said Ron depressingly. "We're doomed." Replied Harry. "Now lets not jump to conclusions just yet." Said Will, trying to sound hopeful. But after what she saw, it didn't look good. "Oh, you doubt our abilities?" asked the man named Steve. "Steve Austin, on Power Pole. The drunk skunk you just saw was Virgil Blake, on eye-beams." "Pleased to meet you." Said Irma in her most sarcastic voice.

"We're still one Rambler short." Said Jill. "You mean three." Said Fay. "No Fay, I meant one." She pointed to a mantel on the wall. Two pictures were on the mantle; one of a tall man with dark blue eyes. His right hand was glowing red. The second man had hazel eyes and brown hair. He was holding what appeared to be a homemade doll. "Oh yes, only one." Said Fay.

"Who are those men?" asked Hay Lin. "The one with the glowing hand was Ken Somerset. He had the power to cut through anything with just a swipe of his hand." Said Fay. "What happened to him?" asked Taranee. "He was fighting a bunch of those demons," said Jill, "when he saw three Death Eaters. Ken challenged them, and one of them hit Ken with that killing curse. Max retaliated by cutting said Death Eater's head off." "Really!" said Harry, wondering if this was the incident that made Voldemort lose his cool.

"The one with the doll," said Jill, "Was Leon Falcon from New Orleans. We called him 'Cajun Man.' He excelled in voodoo. Just six hours ago, he was bitten by a zombie, and had to be placed in cryo-sleap. His only chance of ever waking up again, is if someone finds a cure for the necro-virus."

"Slow down now," said Cornelia, "Voodoo? Eye-beams? Necro-viruses? Whatthe hell isgoing on here?" "It'll take too long to explain." Said Fay. "Besides, you wouldn't believe half, or even one tenth of what I've seen." Said Jill. "Try me," replied Cornelia. "Wait a second," said Hay Lin, "When you said Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, it's like that movie Hellboy?" "Those Hollywood people always mess things up." Said Steve. "When something weird happens, and some hot shot writer wants to make a book or movie about it, we come in and 'convince' him/her/them to change certain details. For example…"

But before Steve could continue, Max re-entered the room with Virgil, who looked like he'd seen better days (or nights). "What'd you give him this time?" asked Jill. "The usual, 'Alco-hell.' Sobered him up pretty quick." Replied Max. Virgil, looked like he was about to throw up. He glared at Steve, or it seemed like he glared. Harry couldn't tell because of Virgil's sunglasses. "Just one word, Steve," said Virgil, "and I'll shove your staff up where the sun don't shine." "What did I do?" whined Steve, sounding really emotionally hurt, "You broke the T.V. with your laser eyes."

"Oh, get over it!" exclaimed Virgil, "I'll just get another one out of the cloner." "You have a cloner?" asked Steve in mock surprise. "You knowI have a cloner." Said an annoyed Virgil. "You have a cloner?" asked a for real surprised Herminoe. "Can I borrow the cloner?" asked Steve. "I told you no. You can't use the cloner to counterfeit money!" exclaimed Virgil. "I just want to make enough to buy a new Camaro. 'Cause that's where the sh$t is baby!" "I'll sh$t you!" exclaimed Virgil as he began to raise his sunglasses. "Bring it on you drunk skunk!" shouted Steve, as he pulled out a short metal object that soon expanded into a long metal poll. The two squared off, each waiting for the other to flinch. But was stopped by Max as he came back into the room.

"That's enough! Both of you!" shouted Max. "If you two want to kill eachother, do it on your own f#ck$ng time. Right now, I need Virgil in one piece, you to Fay. We're going Zombie hunting!" "My favorite kind!" exclaimed Fay with a huge, insane-like grin. She and Virgil followed Max out of the room, leaving Harry and the others speechless. It was Ron who broke the silence first.

"What the bloody hell are you people?" he asked. "Well, we, um…" sputtered Steve. "Shoot, I'm no good at explaining things." He muttered to himself. Fortunately for him and unfortunately for her, Laura came into the room. "Ah, here's Laura! She'll explain everything!" he exclaimed as he jogged out. "Explain what?" asked Laura. "Tell you what, I'll tell them." Said Jill reassuringly. "First things first, everyone should sit down and hear me out." Everyone took a seat on the many couches in the room.

"Okay, first of all, Steve and Virgil have been feuding ever since they met. They are always trying to get the other's goat and start a fight." "What's with the sunglasses?" asked Taranee. "Virgil never takes them off," said Laura, "With good reason. I wasn't there when it happened, but Virgil's eyes were burned out by dark magic." "How horrible!" exclaimed Herminoe and Hay Lin. "Yep, he's had it rough. He got his sight back by volunteering for some experimental robot eye transplant. He can now see better than before, and now can shoot laser beams. But he's rather self-conscious about his new eyes, so he only takes those sunglasses off when he means to destroy something or someone."

Just then, the lights flickered for several seconds. "That's the transporter working. Max, Fay and Virgil are on their way to kick some zombie but." Said Laura neutrally. "Follow me." She said. Laura went another sliding door, which opened into a large room with one wall completely covered with monitor screens. There were several rows of couches in front of the wall of screens.

"This is the observation room." Said Jill. "From here, you can watch those who are in the field, and see them strut their stuff." Harry saw that Steve was already in the room, sitting in the middle row with a boll of popcorn. "Glad you're here." He said with a smile. "Sit down, and enjoy the show." "What show?" inquired Irma with curiosity." Three screens were on, and shows what appeared to be people being shot and hacked to pieces. Harry realizes that what was being killed were Infeiri.

"What is this? Some bad zombie movie?" asked Cornelia. "No, those movies are rarely accurate." Said Steve. "What you're seeing is Max, Virgil and Fay as they shoot and stab their way through the ranks of the undead." "We have special strap on cameras for recording missions." Said Jill "What we see in the field, we see in here."

"Anyway," said Steve, "Want to know the truth behind Night of the Living Dead?" "Not really." Said Ron. "Too bad." Said Steve. "The story is that in 1958, some kids thought it would be fun to try necromancy. They got hold of some ancient book for making zombies. It worked, but only partway. You see, raising the dead is easy, controlling the dead, now that's the hard part. Those stupid kids had no idea how to control their 'creations,' so they ended up as zombie food. The Bureau managed to stop the creatures before they could get very far. Fast forward to 1968 where Gorge Romero was writing the script for Night of the Living Dead. Our people found out that Romero had 'learned ' of the incident, so we had a look at the script. It was given a clean bill of health, only after Romero changed certain details. And that's that the truth behind Night of the Living Dead."

Meanwhile on the screens, the Inferi were dropping like fly's'. Within seconds, they were all dead. That is, that they were no longer moving. Harry saw the remains stacked in a pile, drenched in some sort of liquid and lit of fire. The images then faded into static. "Mission successful." Said Jill. The lights then flickered again. "I'd say that's a new record for zombie slaying." Said Steve.

Soon after, Max had returned from his mission to answer some of Harry's questions. "As you've guessed, I and my teammates are no ordinary humans. The full story is too long to tell, and I'm not allowed to tell it just yet. What you can know is that My team answers only to the President of The United States or the Prime Minister of Great Britton. Our mission here, is to put a stop to Voldemort once and for all. We should have been called in last summer when Voldemort came out in the open."

Harry was surprised that Max had said Voldemort's name. "What?' asked Max. "You said Voldemort's name without even blinking." "Why should I be afraid to say the name of a terrorist?" asked Max. "Voldemort is no ordinary terrorist." Responded Harry. "Well that's what he is fundamentally." Said Max. "Well you should have been here when he got his body back two years ago." Said Harry disdainfully. He was getting a little tired of not being told everything. "Well if we'd known if he was back then, we'd have been here faster than you can say Charles Bronson." Responded Max.

"Anyway, until I've received ordered to tell you anything else, we won't be seeing each other again." "Don't worry," said Jill. "Max has the ear of the president, it won't be long before we are working together." "Off the record," whispered Steve, "Our president has no ear, if you know what I mean."

Soon after, our heroes were back in the room they teleported in from. "We'll; meet again soon." Said Max. "Confusion to the enemy!" exclaimed Jill as the bright light filled the room, and Harry found himself and the others back at the Death Eater base they rescued Draco from. Once again, Harry felt like he was going to throw up, but no one did. "Well, that was just plain weird." Said Cornelia. "Tell me about it." Said Hay Lin. "Well we learned one thing for sure," said Harry. "We know who The Ramblers are and they seem to be fighting on our side.

Meanwhile…

"I feel awful about not telling them the whole truth." Said Jill. "We had no choice," said Max, "It's bad enough that they saw what they saw. They can't know anything else until I get the green light from D.C." Jill looked at Max with much distain. "Since when have you been an advocate for the rules?" "I follow the rules because they are the rules." Responded Max. "I don't have to like them."

The end of chapter 18. This time, I've borrowed dialog from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode The Cloning (one of my favorites). Finally, the first third, or act of the story is completed. Next time, Harry meats the keeper of the Dragonfire. See you next time!