Somewhat of an explanation at the end, otherwise it would spoil this chapter.

Across the next day and half was when the Descendants of Pitch really attacked. For some reason they appeared to avoid Burgess, but they attacked everywhere else, usually accompanied by a handful of Nightmares.

We were scrambling to keep order and to keep Branches from getting destroyed by sending re-enforcements. However, there was only so much we could do.

Our first death came from a Branch in India. Harry got the report, because it was a Descendant of Sandman had died. She had succumbed to contamination, and Harry was devastated.

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Take a break."

Claire patted his other shoulder and nodded, not having to say anything. Harry nodded in thanks and left, and I could see his eyes shining.

For the Descendants of Sandman, the prospect of death is higher than anyone else due to contamination, making them the bravest of all of us. Normally also the toughest, but Harry was relatively new, so he was still getting used to how easy it was for his kind of Descendants to die.

While Harry was gone I got an alert from the Branches in Burgess, they had engaged Nightmares that had surrounded the lake, but they were being very difficult to kill. They weren't even fighting, just kicking them away. Apparently it was like they were fighting something else.

I tapped the keyboard, wondering the best course of action. From what I'd been told there were a lot of Nightmares, more than we'd seen in Burgess since the Battle of Burgess nineteen years ago. This time we weren't holding them back. From the sounds of things, they might be fighting an immortal, which made it not our problem. This wouldn't have bothered me a few years ago, but now...

Making a decision I called Nigel.

"Get out of there. They aren't doing anything to you."

"Are you sure Jackie?" Asked Nigel. "The fact they are here..."

"If they attack you, then return fire, since they aren't return to your posts."

Nigel hesitated. I didn't want to use my authority on one of my oldest friends, but now I had to.

"That's an order, Nigel."

Nigel nodded, recognising that I hadn't wanted to say that. "Sir." The hologram flickered off.

Harry came back, a little puffy eyed, but otherwise okay.

Several hours later I had a report saying that the Nightmares had gone, and then a warning siren went off.

"Intruder alert. Intruder alert." Went the defensive system.

All five of us shot out of our seats and Claire barked to the system.

"Identify."

"Intruder unknown. Five individuals."

"Descendants?"

"Affirmative."

Without any hesitation Alexander barked. "Lock down Records Room and Council Chamber."

"Please identify."

"Gah! DHB175"

"Recognised. Alexander Banks. Initiating lockdown."

There was a loud clanking noise as steel shutters were lowered over the double doors leading to the Chamber. Silence descended and the Council Chamber was filled with the sound of our breathing. We were all scared and Taboo growled uneasily beside me.

"Excuse me? Hello?"

A clear, female, French accented voice suddenly came through the re-enforced doors. The voice was a little crackly, like it was being transmitted through a megaphone.

"We are not your enemies. We are the Descendants of the Nightmare Hunters. Samhain, Jack O'Lantern, Nocturne, April Fool and Daniel Moon." Came the voice again. "I am Sophia, Descendant of Nocturne."

All five of us looked at each other. We'd all read the files, and we knew who they were talking about, but we had no idea that their Descendants worked together like we did.

And them coming to us could only mean trouble.

"If you could please open the door, then we could discuss the current predicament and figure out a way to sort this out."

Sophia's voice was interrupted by another, louder, male voice. "Just open up already!"

"Barry. Enough." Cut through another, calmer voice, again male. "We can't force them."

"Let them in."

We all turned to look at Harry.

"We should, their ancestors fight the Nightmares. It's likely that they don't want any more Nightmares in the world."

I nodded. "Agreed." As much as it dented my pride, it needed to be said. "But just to hear what they have to say." I added, I wasn't quite so willing to accept help.

"A vote." Said Lily. "All those in favour of letting them into the Council Chamber?"

All of us raised our hands.

"A unanimous decision." Commented Claire.

Alexander gave the instruction to remove the lockdown on the Council Chamber, and the shutters disappeared.

The doors opened by some invisible force and revealed the five strangers on our doorstep. Two women and three men, each one of them wearing a cloak. The first woman was tall and dark, with dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin. She wore simple but elegant black shirt and trousers, with delicate make up. It was difficult to pinpoint her age, but I guessed that she was about late twenties. Her cloak was black and spotted with silver, with silver bird foot prints around the edge and making up the clasp.

The other woman was definitely younger, possibly in her early twenties. She also had black hair, but instead of wearing it long, she had hers cut short into a pixie cut, with a fringe that hung just a little too far into her green eyes. Her skin was pale, not as pale as mine, but still pretty pale, to the point where it contrasted her faded black Final Fantasy Seven shirt. A reference I only got because Billy had made me play it. In fact this woman was dressed a lot like a Shinra soldier.

Her cloak was dark grey and patterned with silver bat wings, which shone when they caught the light.

The oldest man had a shock of red hair that had streaks of grey with piercing green eyes. He wasn't the tallest, that went to the elegant woman, but he was close. He was wearing an orange button up shirt and jeans, with a burnt orange cloak. His symbols were in gold and in the shape of flames.

By contrast the younger man had a shock of black hair that hung long into his eyes. He was pale, almost as pale as me and appeared to be in his teens, which surprised me. He was dressed entirely in black, including his cloak, which had silver scythes around the edge.

The final man looked to be about my age with blonde hair and brown eyes. He wore a rather battered pair of jeans and trainers, with a purple t-shirt sporting the Rolling Stones logo. His cloak first looked white, but when it caught the light it went all sorts of different colours, like an opal stone. Golden, round bells adorned the edges of this man's cloak.

The two groups looked at each other, trying to work out exactly what to say. At the same time Claire and the elegant looked woman stepped forward.

"Bonjour." Said the woman with the same accent as before, marking her as Sophia.

"Hello." Said Claire, nodding her greetings.

"A pleasure. As you may have guessed, I am Sophia, Descendant of Nocturne. This is Samantha, Descendant of Samhain." Sophia pointed to the gamer girl, who grinned and waved.

"This is Barry, Descendant of April Fool."

The guy in the white cloak beamed as his name was mentioned.

"Leonardo, Descendant of Jack O'Lantern."

The orange cloak nodded, a small smile on his face.

"And Marty, Descendant of Daniel Moon."

Marty barely even seemed to care that his name had been mentioned and Sophia sighed.

"Honestly Marty, try to be polite for once, please!"

After a second Marty nodded at us. "'Lo."

That was probably the most that we were going to get out of him.

Claire however seemed unfazed by the unsociable greeting and started introducing us.

"I am Claire, Descendant of Toothiana. This is Alexander, Descendant of Bunnymund, Lily Descendant of North, Harry Descendant of Sandman, and Jackie Descendant of Jack Frost."

We all nodded and smiled as our names were called.

"Excellent." Said Leonardo, "Now, I assume you've noticed the increase in Nightmare activity?"

"Oh just get to the point Leo." Groaned Barry, folding his arms.

"I will if you don't interrupt me." Leonardo replied tersely, "As I was saying, we have been trying to combat them with our group of Descendants, but have found that we do not have the man power. Have you had similar issues?"

All five of us looked at each other, unsure whether to actually admit to that. Personally I didn't want to, we didn't know these people, they could be waiting for a chance to... do something? I'll admit I didn't have much, but I still didn't think we should say.

Which is why Taboo let out a growl as Lily began to answer, just as unwilling to share as me.

Lily opened her mouth, but instead of speaking she turned to me.

"Am I going to get mauled if I start talking?"

"No."

"Yes."

I sent Taboo a glare. "Taboo!"

"What, you want to get these guys involved about as much as I do. They barged straight into the base for crying out loud!"

"The tiger has a point."

Everyone jumped at Marty's statement, and I stared at the Descendant of Death.

"Y-you can hear her?"

"Yes." Marty seemed confused. "Why, can no one else?"

"Just me, and immortals oddly."

Marty frowned, but shrugged. "Interesting."

I had a feeling there was more to it than that, but the boy didn't seem keen to share.

"Anyway." Continued Lily, "before I got interrupted by a tiger, I was about to say that yes, we have had problems for the past week or so."

Leonardo nodded. "Sounds about right. How about we join forces, just this once?"

Alexander shrugged. "Sure, we have space at the table."

I sent him a look, to which he sighed, "Think about this from a strategic view-."

Alexander never got to finish, as Taboo grew to full size and jumped onto the table, letting out a full scale snarl.

The newcomers backed off, with Leonardo's hands suddenly filling with fire.

I felt the breath catch in my throat and stumbled backwards, falling over my chair and landing on my back on the floor. The chair fell over with me, landing with a smack right next to me.

I really, really hated fire.

"Jackie!" Taboo cried, suddenly no longer caring about the newcomers, just concerned about me.

"It was the fire wasn't it?" She asked, jumping down and rubbing her head into my chest. I was breathing heavily from the shock, but overall I was okay.

"You alright down there Jackie?" Asked Harry, back to his more jokey self.

"Yep, lovely view down here." I said, pushing off what had happened with a joke. By the door I could hear someone hitting their forehead.

"I'm an idiot! Sorry about that, I should have known that Descendants of Frost wouldn't like the heat." Said Leonardo.

"It's fine." I said, standing up. Taboo stuck her head under my arm to help me.

"Honestly Taboo, I'm fine." I said, giving the tiger a playful shove. She flicked her tail and gave me a look that said, 'sure.'

"Now that that bit of drama's over." Said Samantha, clapping her hands together. "Shall we get started?"

And so, the Descendants of the Nightmare Hunters, or more accurate, the leaders of the HNH-Human Nightmare Hunters. Once again, if you read Friend or Foe, you get what each symbol means, but I know that Barry's might still seem odd, so I'll explain. The bells are supposed to be like bells on a Jesters hat.

That's all for now, see you next time!