The SuperStarr Chronicles

Disclaimer: "Buckle up, boys! It's going to get weird." - Raphael, Rise of the TMNT

Chapter 13: Night of the Daemons, Part 2!

Bayville High School

Kitty Pryde hummed happily as she walked down the school hallway. In her hands was a small pink box. The young Illinoisan mutant found her way to her destination. She walked up to the secretary's desk.

"Hi!" She greeted. "I want to say hello to Principal Kelly and give him a little gift." The brunette phaser held up her box. She had wanted to make the contents of the box ever since the Bounty incident, but then the X-Men had to go to Cleveland, so that only delayed things further. Thankfully, things had seemed to calm down. (Author's Note: This scene takes place after the "Phantazia of the Rock Opera" storyline)

"He's inside." The woman said, gesturing to the door to the office.

"Thanks!" Kitty said. She walked up to the door and knocked on it.

"Come in!" Kelly called out through the door.

"Hi, Principal Kelly!" Kitty greeted as she walked in.

"Oh uh, hello Miss Pryde." The brunet bespectacled man blinked. "How may I help you?"

"I thought I'd make these for you." Kitty explained, putting the box on his desk.

"What are they?"

In response to Kelly's question, Kitty opened the box and turned it around, revealing some cupcakes. They were brown, in colorful little paper cups with a light coating of blue icing on the tops.

"Cupcakes!" Kitty explained.

"Cupcakes, huh?"

"Yup." Kitty nodded. "I made them myself! Like, think of them as a bit of a peace offering."

"A peace offering?" Kelly blinked.

"Yup! I thought it would be a nice little way to make up for that whole...thing on the soccer field."

"Ah, right." Kelly nodded. "What was that...thing you uh...X-Men, right?" Kitty nodded. "What was that thing you all...fought, if I may ask?"

"Evidently, it was some kind of alien bounty hunter." Kitty rolled her eyes. "I know. It was totally the Brotherhood's fault he was here."

"Yeah...Miss Creed told me that." Kelly recalled. I think that before that fifth shot of Jack I drank...or was it seventh?

"Like, I bet that you never imagined you'd get to imagine a full-on superhero battle, huh?" Kitty said.

"Admittedly, no." Kelly confessed. But then again, I never thought I'd end up learning that people could be born with superpowers these days. God, the world is getting crazier. I can see why that Xavier guy wants that kept quiet.

"Give the cupcakes a try! It's a new recipe." Kitty encouraged. The brunette mutant picked up a cupcake from the box and held one out. Kelly blinked at it.

Uhhhhhh, I got a bad feeling about this... The principal blinked as he got up and accepted the cupcake. Oh, get a hold of yourself! He mentally chided himself. This one can phase through solid matter. If she wanted you dead, she could just...pull out your intestines like in one of those Mortal Kombat games. It's just a cupcake. He slowly bit into it and chewed. Kitty's smile widened.

"...you like it?" The girl asked. Kelly swallowed.

"Huh." He mumbled. "This was...actually pretty good." He complimented. "A bit salty, though."

"Less salt, good to know." Kitty nodded.

"Well, I do have to say, Miss Pryde. I do appreciate-gurk!" His eyes widened and body went stiff as a board. He dropped the muffin he bit into, and it bounced off the carpeted floor of the office like a rubber ball on hardwood.

"Principal Kelly?" Kitty blinked. He started to twitch. "Principal Kelly?" She repeated, waving a hand in front of his face. "Maybe I used too much paprika?" She noticed Kelly's twitching getting worse. "Or was it the basil?" His face started turning various colors and making odd expressions.

"HMMMBDRRRRGUFAWWWWFLPSISNDFBGLSFNFUEGGLNANFNSPOFINWISNFENDKNF!" The brown-haired man babbled out incoherently.

"Oh, no..." Kitty winced. The principal's cheeks seemed to expand to the size of softballs. "Oh no!"

"BLLLEARGH!" Kelly spewed out a stream of neon blue-colored vomit. Kitty screamed as she dodged it. Kelly clutched his head.

"OH MY GOD IT'S FULL OF STARS!" He howled, then raced out of his office like a Formula 1 car with a jet engine strapped to it...

SMASH!

...and blasting right through his door like an action hero making a dramatic entrance. Kitty blinked at the wrecked doorway. The secretary peeked in.

"What just happened in here-! Oh my gosh!" She gasped. "What...how?"

"Yeah, I think I used too much chive..." Kitty sighed. The secretary blinked at the office.

"What..." She winced at the blue vomit. "What is that?"

"He puked." Kitty said.

The secretary blinked at the young mutant. "It's blue! How do you puke blue?!"

"I...I have, like, no idea." Kitty answered, rubbing the back of her head.

"THE LUCHADORES ARE SUPLEXING MY BRAIN!" Kelly was heard yelling. His yelling was then followed by the sounds of screaming, wood splintering, glass breaking, and hissing.

"OH MY GOD MY EYES!" Duncan Matthews was heard wailing. "IT'S IN MY EYES! MY BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL EYES! WHY GOD WHY?!"

Location Unknown

The crystal ball emitted a soft white glow as the formerly clear mystical object started to fog up. The ball then projected an image of the Brotherhood meeting Lady Daemon above it.

"Hmmmm..." A stunning blonde woman rubbed her chin in amusement. She was clad in a diaphanous green cloak, with a darker green dress underneath it, and had a silver jeweled diadem on her forehead. "It seems my dear sister has summoned some help." She chuckled in amusement. "And they're children! And she says I'm the mad one in the family." The woman heard a growling noise.

"The convergence is coming." A voice reminded her.

Alisabeth Daemon rolled her eyes, and turned to a mirror. Her reflection seemed to change and warp into the form of a hag-like woman, with yellow skin and orange straight long hair. Her eyes were a burning red, and the sclera was black. "I know. I know it's coming! I've been waiting since bloody 1937!" She groaned. "You have to admit, it is amusing that my goody-good sister would pick a bunch of children to help her try and stop me."

"You made the mistake of underestimating your blood in the past, Alisabeth Daemon." Kthara, ruler of the Outer Dark, reminded. "If she had an interest in these...children, then there must be something special about them, It would be wise to be cautious."

"Yes, yes." Alisabeth waved it off. "I can handle them. All I have to do is get my sister alone. She's always needed help to face me. In 1937, it was that bastard MacInnis. In 1962, she needed the First Line. In 1986, she needed Ronnie Rocker." A wicked smirk crossed her face. "Shame we were on opposite sides. That Rocker was quite handsome. He would have made a wonderful mate..." She shook her head. That was in the past. Besides, that Roman leftover killed him all the way back in 2008...

"We require souls to emerge into this realm." Kthara reminded her, a growl of frustration in her voice.

"And you shall have them." Alisabeth assured. "I may have not been able to get the souls you and your demons needed to manifest on the Hindenburg, but you'll get them here. And then some." She smirked. "After all, it takes a village to bring the Outer Dark into the world." She showed the image of a small village on her crystal ball. "A special day is coming to this village. It's going to be a big gathering. Which means there will be a lot of people there. A lot of souls for you."

Lady Daemon's Castle

"Uhm...It's nice to meet you." Paul said to the blonde Scotswoman, holding his hand out for a shake. The woman gave him a smile.

"It's nice to meet you, young man." Lady Daemon said, shaking the offered hand. "It's quite wonderful to see that young people today can be so polite." MacInnis also shook the hand and gave Paul a smile. The Brotherhood just looked at each other in confusion. Except for Lila. She looked like she wanted to flee the castle.

"She won't bite, Lila." Clara whispered in the British-Indian girl's ear in assurance.

"So..." Lance blinked at the blonde Scotswoman. "...you are Megan Daemon?"

"Aye. That I am, lad." Megan nodded, the amused smile still on her face.

"...you know, I really should not have been surprised." The earthshaker shook his head. "I mean, Clara said you met her during WWII. And well...look at her." Lance waved his arm at the Canadian feral.

"I admit, she does look good for someone who should be decrepit, if not outright dead by now." Pietro admitted under his breath. "Gah!" He hissed when he felt Darkstar slap him upside the head.

"Can it, Maximoff." Craig hissed.

"Magic does a body good, son." Ian chuckled.

"I guess so." Lance muttered.

"Yo, Clara said you were a Royal Scots Borderer. What's that?" Todd asked.

"Basically, I was Scottish military, lad." Ian told him.

"Clara said you wanted us here. Well, we're here. Start talking." Lance grumbled.

Flick!

"Hey!" He swiped at Clara, who had flicked his ear. The brunet glared at the blonde Canadian.

"Do not be rude." The feral woman admonished.

"I take it Clara here told you lot about my sister Alisabeth." Megan figured.

"Of course." Lila nodded. "She also said you two caused the Hindenburg's destruction."

Ian sighed. "Aye, that was..."

"Yes, it was horrible." Megan nodded. "Alisabeth wanted to use the souls of everyone on board that zeppelin to fuel a gateway that would allow her to bring the Outer Dark into our world."

"The what?" Pietro asked.

"The Outer Dark." Clara repeated. "Some kind of demons."

"That sounds scary." Fred shuddered.

"No kidding." Lila muttered. "But then again, that's the Daemons for ya."

"You don't need to be scared of me, lassie." Megan smirked in amusement. "I don't bite."

"Told ya." Clara smirked at the interstellar teleporter.

"Why don't we go to the castle's lounge?" Ian offered. "We can talk further and you all can get more comfortable."

"Fine by us." Clara shrugged. "Come on, kids. I wanna sit on a couch."

"You sat on a comfy chair the entire way here." Lance pointed out as the group headed further into the castle. Well, except for two: Lila Cheney and Todd Tolensky. The British-Indian mutant frowned as she looked around. Todd stared at her, blinking in confusion.

"Uh...hey." The amphibious young mutant piped up. He lightly poked Lila's side. "You...you okay, yo?"

"Huh?" Lila squeaked before blinking at Todd. "Y...yeah, yeah. I'm fine." She tried to nod it off. "Yeah."

"You sure?" Todd blinked. "You seem really freaked out."

"Yeah." Lila nodded...then shook her head. "...no. Ya see, it's just...this place."

"Yeah." Todd looked around. "It's kinda cool. I mean, this isn't what I imagined when I thought of a castle, you know? It's more like...one of those fancy country mansions."

"Yeah, I think this is more of a mix of a castle and manor house." Lila agreed. The amphibious mutant blinked at her.

"You seem freaked out." Todd said. Lila's lips tightened. "Hey, you got me to talk to you when I was down. Let me return the favor, yo."

"A little." Lila admitted. "I mean, this is the home of Megan Daemon herself. Her family has a very...bad reputation."

"She herself seems nice." Todd pointed out.

"True, but..." Lila frowned. "I still can't help it."

"Hey!" The two saw Paul peek in. "You two alright?"

"Fine." Lila nodded.

"We're good, yo." Todd said.

"Alright then." Paul nodded. "Come on, then." He pulled his head away, and the two young mutants followed him. They arrived at the lounge. They noticed it was a rather comfortable-looking room. The main attraction was a pair of long couches surrounding a large marble table. The rest of the Brotherhood sat on one of the couches, Lady Daemon and Ian MacInnis sat on the other.

"So, what do you need us for?" Fred asked.

"And how did you know about us?" Lance added.

"The cards told me." Lady Daemon smiled. The blonde Scotswoman reached into her jacket and pulled out a deck of cards. Fred blinked at them.

"Playing cards?" Fred said.

"No, tarot cards." Clara smiled at the powerhouse mutant after she finished drinking some beer from her stein. "Meg here is an expert at reading them."

"I've been reading the cards since I was in me 20s." Megan explained. "The charm I wear around me neck also helps." She pointed to the crystalline skull around her neck.

Lila shuddered a bit. Bloody hell, of course a Daemon would wear a crystal animal skull. Where would one even get one of those?

"Where did you get that?" Paul asked, pointing at the skull.

"Ironically, it was a gift from her sister Alisabeth." Ian explained.

"As for why I need your help...it's pretty simple." Megan said. "You see, the cards have warned me that Alisabeth is back."

"Hoo boy..." Clara groaned.

"Who's Alisabeth?" Fred blinked.

"Her psycho sister." Lance told him, pointing at Megan. "She helped blow up the Hindenburg."

Fred blinked at the revelation. "...what's that?"

"Before yer time, lad. Way before your time." Ian told him.

"It was a zeppelin, Fred." Pietro explained, rolling his eyes. "In 1937, it was destroyed in a fire as it tried to land in New Jersey."

"A zeppelin?" Fred blinked. "Oh, like Led Zeppelin! I love that band!"

"Saw them live in 1977." Clara smiled. "At the Pontiac Silverdome. Fun show."

"You know that exploding zeppelin on the cover of their first album?" Paul asked. Fred nodded. "That was the Hindenburg."

"Oh."

"Can we just get on with this, already?" Pietro groaned.

"Right." Megan nodded. "The cards warned me that Alisabeth is going to try to repeat the ritual that ended up destroying the Hindenburg."

"She's going to try and summon the Outer Dark again?!" Clara groaned. "God, that woman will never learn."

Todd leaned over to Lila. "You get the feeling we're a bit out of our league here?" The amphibious mutant asked. The English girl nodded.

"So basically, you want us to help you stop your evil crazy sister." Lance realized. He looked at Clara. "Why us?"

"Yeah, get the X-Geeks." Pietro snorted. "They like to play superhero."

"Your little rivals are busy handling another issue back in America." Megan smirked. The Brotherhood all looked at each other quizzically. What was the Scotswoman talking about? (Author's Note: "Night of the Daemons" and "Phantazia of the Rock Opera" take place at the same time.)

Pietro shook his head. "Why not get some actual superheroes to help you?! Doesn't Scotland have any?!"

"Our little country does have some. The new Ghost Girl, for one." Lady Daemon nodded. She sipped some tea. "But most of them don't have the resources to come around here."

"The Daemons also have a rep, so I don't blame them for wanting to be involved in this." Lila sighed. She then frowned at Megan. "You said that to summon the Outer Dark, Alisabeth needed the souls of a lot of people. That was why she tried to do it at the Hindenburg, right?"

"Yes." Ian nodded.

"Soooo..." Lila continued on. "Where's she going to find the souls out here?"

A smirking Megan reached into her jacket. She pulled out a folded piece of paper, then unfolded it and laid it out on the table. The group leaned into it. The piece of paper was a flyer for a celebration.

Dreagmore Birthday Celebration!

Come join the people of Dreagmore as they ring in the city's 190th birthday!

Games! Fun! Food!

"The town is having a little birthday, huh?" Clara noticed with an amused smirk.

"Indeed." Ian said. "Dreagmore is celebrating its anniversary."

"It's an old township." Megan explained. "Been around for a few hundred years. And it's more populated than many other places around here."

"What kind of name is Dreagmore?!" Pietro wondered.

"The name comes from the word dreagag." Ian explained. "It's the Scottish Gaelic word for 'meteorite'."

"Why's it called that?" Todd asked.

"Because back in the ancient past, a meteor landed in that area." Megan smiled. "The township was born around the crater. It's literally the center of it."

"How do you know that Alisabeth will come to this place?" Lance frowned.

"Because the cards predicted it." Megan said. The Scottish woman laid out some of her tarot cards on the table. "The demonic queen will take the souls of the town born from the star metal." The blonde woman pointed out the cards, showing the group how she came to it.

"Star metal?" Todd whispered in confusion to Lila.

"Some meteorites can contain metal." Lila whispered back to him. "Most of them don't, though. I think Terry Pratchett owned a sword forged from metal that came from a meteorite."

"Why this town?" Lance asked. "Is she after the meteorite?"

"Possibly." Ian said. "Meteorites have been used as objects of ceremony and worship by various cultures."

"Personally, I think that she's going to try again in bringing the Outer Dark to our world." Megan said. "Dreagmore has a nice little tourism industry going. People want to see the meteorite. Alisabeth needs a lot of souls to open that doorway."

"And considering that this town is celebrating an anniversary on top of that..." Clara frowned. "Yeah. I can imagine that the town is going to have a nice amount of people in it. Plenty of soul fuel."

"Exactly."

"...I don't like this." Lance admitted. "I don't like the idea of us being here and doing this. We're not superheroes. Why do you want us?"

Megan smiled. "Because you lot have potential."

"...potential?" Lance asked.

"Indeed." The Scottish sorceress said. "You are all a rough and tumble bunch, but you got potential to be great. All you lot just need is a bit of proper guidance."

...Clara said something like that in the past. Lance thought. "Soooo...you think this'll help make us into heroes."

"Oh, brother." Pietro rolled his eyes.

"Not to mention, it'll be a nice little surprise. Nobody's going to expect a bunch of wild teenage Yanks to counter Alisabeth." Ian said.

"There's still one other issue." Lila thought out loud. "You said that Alisabeth needs a lot of souls to open the gateway to unleash these Outer Dark guys, right?" Meg nodded.

"It's why the Hindenburg blew up." Ian said.

"Well...why not just go to a major city?" Lila pointed out. "A big city would likely have more than enough souls to power such a gateway."

"My guess is simply this: Alisabeth isn't trying to attract a ton of attention." Ian said. "If she did try this in a big city, like you have suggested, she likely would have done exactly that. This area of the world tends to not have a ton of people in it."

"And Dreagmore is populated enough to fuel the gateway." Craig noted. "Terrific. Big enough to help bring the disaster, but small enough for no one to notice until it's too late."

"So, she's gonna kill us all?" Fred realized, his face going pale.

"I always figured I'd die horribly, yo. But at the hands of demons summoned by a crazy Scottish lady? That's a new one." Todd muttered.

"Well, you may not care, but I do!" Pietro yelped.

"Suddenly found your altruism, Mr. Ambiguous?" Lila sneered. Fred, Lance, Todd, Craig, and Paul all snickered at that.

"I don't wanna get ripped to shreds by demons!" Pietro wailed. "Do you know that every girl back home would want the mayor of Bayville to declare a Day of Mourning for me if that happened?! OW!" Pietro screamed. He then glared at Craig and grumbled as he rubbed the back of his head. Lady Daemon chuckled.

"Is he always like this?" Ian asked Clara. The blonde feral shrugged.

"Kinda. I think he was neglected a lot in his childhood." Fred had picked up the flyer and read through it.

"Hey, this festival sounds fun." Fred noted. "I wonder what food will be there?"

"Didn't you eat on the ship?" Craig asked.

"You get used to it." Todd said.

"Fred does have a point, though." Paul looked at the flyer himself. "This fair does sound a lot of fun. It looks like the meteorite will be displayed publicly, too."

"It's normally in the town's museum." Ian said.

"Well, then." Clara smiled. "Looks like it's time to hit the fair!"

Kthara first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #24 (October 1975). She battled the Hellstrom siblings and the Thing in her two appearances. I decided to tie her to the Daemons as Kthara as one of her aliases was "She Who Rules the Outer Dark", and the Outer Dark were the demons that crossed paths with the Daemon family. They were all co-created by Chris Claremont, so a connection can logically be made.

Ghost Girl first appeared alongside the rest of the Crusaders in Invaders #14 (March 1977). Like the rest of the Crusaders, Ghost Girl was meant to be a pastiche of a member of the Quality Comics/DC Comics superhero team called the Freedom Fighters. She was a pastiche of Phantom Lady.