Not long ago, Kate would have been furious that things were about to go down and she was here hiding in this stupid clubhouse. But like everyone else, she was finally starting to appreciate how these things worked. If there was going to be a fight, she didn't want to be there, Victoria didn't want her to be there, Lilith didn't want her to be there... Hell, Jefferson would probably be worried about hurting her. So fine, she'd hang out here and pray for everyone's safety. Sometimes, when things were at their worst, she reverted to her old ways. This seemed like a good time to admit that maybe prayer could work.
It was getting easier with every passing moment to see the world from an outside perspective.
Jefferson had arrived, discarding his glasses and jacket in the passenger seat of his way-too-nice car. With the precision of someone who had all the time in the world he rolled his sleeves up above his elbows and straightened himself out before stepping into the junkyard. His approach wasn't stealthy, and it didn't need to be. "Miss Caulfield? Miss Price? I tell you what, if you give me back my model and apologize like adults, maybe I'll kill you quickly. Otherwise, I swear I will extend your punishments for weeks. Months if need be..."
Kate smirked to herself as she stared up at the sky through the holes in the roof. It felt as though everyone else was smirking right alongside her. He thought he had some kind of upper hand here. It was sort of cute. In a few moments, he would be regretting talking big. With any luck, he would regret a great deal more than that.
Max and Chloe stepped into what little light there was in the junkyard from the heavens above and the distant streetlights. Max at least was wielding Kate's excessively decorated bat, slung across her shoulders. Chloe was armed with nothing but her winning smile. "You're terrible at negotiations, Jeffershit" Chloe quipped. Kate didn't even need to be in her head to know she was enjoying this way too much.
The teacher gave an exaggerated groan at the horrible nickname. It wasn't even clever! But she seemed so proud of herself for inventing it. "...Very well, I assume that you think we should do this the hard way? Do you understand how terrible an idea that is?"
Right on cue, Lilith stepped out behind him. Kate had tried desperately to convince everyone to take this seriously, but she was the only voice of reason here, it seems. Everyone else wanted to make their grand entrance before beating Jefferson into the dust. "Oh, we're fully aware, Mark. I made sure to bring everyone up to speed on all your shitty behavior." Despite his attempts to remain cool, it was easy enough to hear his breathing pick up, his eyes widening slightly. "Surprised? Thought you might be. My greatest joy will be seeing you die without ever knowing how it is I got my faculties back. Thanks for nothing, by the way. If you want me back, you're gonna have to work for it."
"That's fine, I'll break you down into pieces and start again." His voice was steely, but his face was red, his breathing uneven. Surely by now he could sense things were not on the level here.
Victoria walked out with her signature pout, completing the walk-on cameos of the evening. "Mr. Jefferson! How can you be so mean? I trusted you... I... You were my Everyday Hero!" She couldn't maintain the drama very long and gave a sharp laugh. "Of course that was before I saw you for the psychotic killer you really are. And I'm going to take great pleasure in utterly destroying you, and burning every last one of your photographs."
With everyone making their entrances and getting their quips in, Jefferson was itching to go at it, and in seconds the fight began. For a while, everything was right on target. Max began whipping around the junkyard, keeping the teacher busy. When he did actually manage to get in a punch or kick it was generally in Lilith's direction, meaning it was relatively useless. Chloe relied on her newfound strength, Victoria on her imbued speed.
Frankly, Kate was grateful no one expected her to be part of the melee. She'd be knocked out in seconds.
Unfortunately, a day goofing around in a junkyard and enacting a plan created by a teenage girl wasn't much to go off of. Even outnumbering and perhaps overpowering the villain wasn't enough. Jefferson had decades of experience over them. Chloe went down first, after taking an unexpected kick directly to the chest that sent her flying against the wrecked school bus. Without a proper full moon, there was no way for her to really unleash. And once Chloe was hurt, Max's concentration went to garbage, leaving her open for Jefferson to roughly grab her by the throat and lift her up like it was nothing. "One of you moves, and I execute her without a second thought. Oh, and your friend over there might want to think about coming out of hiding..."
Kate had completely and utterly fucked everything up. This was supposed to be a moment of triumph, and instead Chloe was likely suffering some severe fractures to her ribs, and Max was seconds from being wiped out of existence. Kate had to assume in her current state she couldn't even do anything to time, not while she was being choked within an inch of her life. She stepped out to the sound of the asshole's maniacal cackling. "Miss Marsh! Of course, we have to round out this little circus with one of Blackwell's biggest freaks. So sorry for our first meeting to be like this, but life is funny sometimes."
The witch approached slowly, holding back the desire to fire something back at him. Now was not the time to be a petty asshole when her friend was in serious danger. But as she looked skyward for a moment, it occurred to Kate that perhaps this was the perfect time to retort. "Look..." Her eyes flitted back down and she looked in Chloe's direction, receiving a nod and a toothy grin that looked a little sharper than she remembered. "You have one and only one chance to let Max go and not be obliterated, Marky Mark. Why do you think I was hiding? It's because everyone else said I was too powerful. They all wanted to get their licks in before I was allowed to do anything. So I'm telling you again, set Max down, and I won't annihilate you with powers called up from the aether beyond your wildest fever dream..."
Any remaining anger drained from his face and he was left only with amusement, tossing Max aside to the ground. Victoria and Lilith huddled around her and watched in horror as Kate continued to bluff, seemingly as oblivious to the oncoming storm as Jefferson himself. "Okay, give me all you've got. Avada kedavra or whatever. I'm game."
"Hm? Oh, sorry, no, I'm not going to do anything. But she probably isn't too happy about you threatening to kill Max..." Kate pointed behind the photographer, and he turned, screaming at the enormous blue wolf that now stood mere feet away. "Now you could try apologizing, but somehow I just don't think that's gonna do it. Toodles..." As Kate walked away to join the others, there was a sickening noise that was pretty much all splatter and no crunch. Whatever Mark Jefferson's innards were composed of, they were no longer fully human.
"...wh... what the hell just happened?" Max seemed to be dealing well enough with her girlfriend being the same size as her own truck, but her confusion was understandable.
Kate motioned toward the sky with a satisfied look on her face. "Just this once, the apocalypse worked in our favor. Check it out, two moons..." Sure enough, there was a pair of full moons among the stars where only one half moon should have been. It was completely impossible, but against all sense, Kate was alright with it this time. The horrible sounds continued in the background, and everyone was in agreement that it would be wise to move away from the carnage toward the junkyard entrance.
As soon as they had shown, the moons were gone again, and Chloe eventually emerged some time later, naked except for some general viscera, and completely unphased. She had at least had the presence of mind to fetch the scattered remnants of her clothing and fished out her truck keys, passing them to Kate. "Here, you seem like the most responsible one at the moment. You can drive." The other scraps of clothing went somewhere on the floor of the truck and she wrapped herself in less-than-hygienic flannel blanket before climbing in the passenger seat.
Kate took the wheel of the truck and Max settled in to keep an eye on Chloe. "Can I entrust you to sneak her into her own house? She's gonna need a shower and a change of clothes, and probably some rest. Barely infected a few days and she already got forcefully transformed by a freak double-moon and then turned human after such a short time. The fact she's coherent at all is amazing. She's really amazing."
Chloe was already snuggled up against Max, out like a light, and the brunette was toying with her hair idly. "She is..." At the moment, she was a bit lost in her own world, admiring Chloe, full of love and worry and probably a touch of arousal if she was being honest.
Victoria leaned in the driver's side window with a similar smile in Kate's direction. "We'll be right behind you. And I guess we can figure stuff out from there? Um, don't we still have like... a storm to stop or whatever? That seems like one of those things we shouldn't take too long to sort out."
Kate knew that Victoria had a good point, but she also hated the idea of pushing everyone too hard. Just as Lilith had said, she wasn't the leader, she was the heart. She wanted to look out for everyone, keep them safe and healthy if she could. "We only have Max's vision to go by, but it doesn't hit immediately tomorrow. Not until at least noon or so. Enough time that Chloe can get some strength back and we can maybe find at least a tiny something to eat. Tonight was bad. I get the feeling... tomorrow may be much worse..."
[A/N: You may be wondering, why is Chloe's werewolf form covered in blue fur? Only the hair on the top of her head is dyed, and it really makes no sense whatsoever. Luckily, I have an answer for you: I don't care. I wanted a blue werewolf and I made a blue werewolf. If this is a problem for you, please feel free to never tell me because I won't listen.]