Chapter 3

Kelly closed the door to her bedroom and looked around it. Empty. "Perfect." She would have to search for a better hiding place for the necklace until she was done with it. First things first, she'd have to take it off. That's exactly what she was about to do when the alarm went off and the team knew Zadavia was calling. She stuffed her necklace back under her shirt and ran out of the room to meet the rest of the team in the conference room. Zadavia told them about the giant monster rampaging downtown (they get a lot of those) and the 9 of them took off.

"What is with all the octopi?" Lucy asked as soon as they got there. They all looked at her. "Considering how you pluralize hippopotamus, I'm pretty certain that's the proper plural."

"Please," Benny said, "Everybody knows it's octopuses."

"Octopi."

"Octopuses."

"Octopi!"

"Octopuses!"

"HEY!" Nadine interrupted, "Everybody knows that you pluralize it the same way as sheep. You leave it alone!" The 3 erupted into a heated argument.

"HEY!" Sarah intercepted, "Let's just fight!" The 3 nodded and the fight started.

Nadine threw some fireballs at the octopus and actually did some damage for once. Lucy threw out some plants to restrict the tentacles. Sarah screamed. Before Michael could transform, though, it pulled one of the tentacles free and smacked Kelly down an alley.

"What's with the coyote punching bag lately?" Kelly asked herself as she got up.

"I was going to ask myself the same question."

Kelly groaned and looked at Austin. "I thought I made it perfectly clear that I wasn't talking to you!"

"You are talking."

"Because you're pulling me into a conversation!"

Lucy looked at Kelly and Austin talking in the alley. "Who's that?"

Sarah looked, too. "Grey and white wolf, I'd say that's Austin."

"That's Austin?"

Sarah nodded.

Nadine sighed. "I can see why she likes him."

"She never said that."

"No, but she thought it. And did you see how she bumped into that table when Jack mentioned him? Yeah, she likes him."

Austin groaned. "Look, since you're psychic, I'm not going to say you were wrong about the whole me trying to kill you thing and that it was just a dream. But I'm also not going to force you to like me. So if you really never want to see me again, just say the word and I'll get out of your life forever." When Kelly said nothing, he started to leave.

"Wait!" Kelly called, making him to turn back to face her again. She smiled. "You don't have to leave forever. In fact, if you're gonna be showing up on a regular basis like this…I'd be looking forward to it."

He half-smiled back. "Go help your team fight. I'll see you around."

She started to leave and then came back. "Uh, you wouldn't happen to know anything about octopuses would you?"

"I know that there are 2 plurals and one of them is the one you just used."

"I knew Nadine was the only one who was wrong!"

"But that's not important. You're fighting an Octaggio demon. Just keep throwing fire at the tentacles and make sure he doesn't move them. Uh…jump on to one of them while they're still restricted and make sure he doesn't hit anyone else until it's dead."

She smiled in gratitude. "Thanks." She ran back into the fight. "Lucy, don't let go! Nadine, keep firing!" (Pun intended.) She jumped onto one of the tentacles like Austin told her to…and as soon as Nadine fired at it, it broke free and started smacking her around. "This…" she said every time she reached Austin, "…was…payback…wasn't it?"

"Pretty much!" he called after her.

Finally, Nadine fired at the tentacle again and it dropped Kelly on the sidewalk. "Ow." Kelly stood up. "Can you be a bit more careful next time?"

"Sorry!" Nadine yelled.

Kelly started to join them again, but then realized something was wrong. "The necklace!" She looked down and saw it lying next to her. She picked it up and put it back on.

Robert noticed it before she could hide it again. His eyes flashed red and then the whitish-blue of the necklace as he looked at it and raced down there. "Where'd you get that?"

"Nothing! Uh…" Kelly hid it again. "I mean, I found it." He gave her a look of suspicion. "Under a loose floorboard hidden in the closet of Dad's lab. I'm putting it back the day before my birthday, OK?"

"Fine. I won't tell anyone." Robert rejoined the fight and Kelly followed.

After another minute, Nadine got tired of wasting ammo and threw a fireball straight at the monster's heart…only to make it grow bigger.

"Nadine!" Lucy scolded, "I don't think we're supposed to make it bigger!" In this tirade, she let go of one of the tentacles and it smacked her back.

Robert started to go help her…and then came back and used his power to launch a whole pillar of fire at the monster.

"Uh, Robert?" Nadine said, "I believe that's my job."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just see who can do the most damage sooner. And go!" He started to attack. Nadine had to process this new change for a few seconds before she could figure out what was going on.

Kelly cocked her head…and looked at her necklace. Before she could even think about it, she was smacked again and it kicked the thought right out of her head. Her eyes glowed silver with anger. She held her hands out. "Incendere!" A bolt of fire launched out of her hands and implanted itself in the demon, making it explode.

Lucy shook off the entrails. "Thanks, Kelly."

"You're welcome!" Kelly snapped back.

Benny did the same as Lucy. "Maybe we should zap this off and just go home."

Sarah nodded, zapped them all till they were clean, and then led them back.

Kelly didn't seem to be able to remember that her necklace may be connected to their problems…but she did notice that Robert was acting differently now, too.