Oh, to Be Young II

The first Vince had known about it, Howard had frozen.

The wolf-man had sniffed and then cried out, 'Hit the deck!'

Vince, Frank, and Howard dived behind a set of lockers as an explosion ripped through the school. Vince's nose was immediately assaulted with the sweet smell of blood. Saliva instantly flooded into his mouth. Vince swallowed it back down again. Grinding his teeth, he peered around the corner.

'What was that?' Frank asked.

'Trouble.' Vince was looking out over a whole corridor full of collapsed and confused teenagers. Several of them were looking around, wide-eyed and panicked. Many of them were flattened on the ground and unmoving. But Vince's eyes were drawn to the door, mostly because the new girl was scrambling over. Slowly, he stood up and he was horrified by what he saw.

Emily Peterson was lying on her back. Her blonde hair had turned white. His skin was deeply wrinkled and saggy. When he focused on her, he could even hear her breathing had turned hoarse, like an old woman on her death bed. He felt more than saw Howard and Frank move to either side of him. Because he was focused on Emily, he heard what the new girl said.

'Emily…?'

'Jess?' Emily rasped. 'What happened…?'

Jess pressed her lips together and then made the decision, it seemed, not to tell her that she'd been rapidly aged. 'I…don't know. How do you feel?'

'…Tired…' Emily closed her eyes for a moment.

'She's dead,' Howard whispered just as the door swung open and one of the art teachers rushed in.

'D-d-dead?' Frank stammered.

Howard nodded as the teacher leaned over and felt Emily's neck. Her face went white. He said, 'Her heart's stopped.'

Vince's teeth snapped together. 'Come on. We gotta contact Big D. He'll know something.' He slipped back the way they'd been walking. Frank and Howard were quick to follow. The three boys quickly weaved their way through the panicking mass of students, and the prone bodies. Then there was a loud tearing sound, causing them to spin around again.

The doors had been torn clean away and a massive mummy stood there, holding them above his head. The three boys flinched back as the student body seemed to turn as one and try to flee. The figure next to the mummy got Vince's attention though. That doesn't make sense! It's broad daylight outside.

By the tall and sharp-featured woman was smiling and displaying the fact that she had fangs.

Jess looked up at them. But, strangely, she showed no fear. She looked at them, and then down at Emily's body. And then up at them again. Then she let out a wordless yell. Her clenched fists came down on the linoleum floor beneath her. Flames erupted out of nowhere, forcing the mummy and vampiress to take a step back.

'Let's go!' Vince grabbed Frank and Howard and they fell into step with the crowd.

As soon as they ran outside, Vince stopped short. 'Drat!'

Howard cried out in alarm. 'We're trapped on the school grounds!'

'Yeah!' Frank cried as they watched students bang ineffectively against the barrier that kept them all from escaping. 'They're not letting us get out!'

'We can still call Big D!' Vince turned on his heel again. 'Come on!' He led them to the parking lot where he'd parked the red BMW his uncle had brought him for his 16th birthday.

The four boys were quick into the car.

'But, Vince, we can't drive out!' Howard insisted.

'No, but Big D did install this!' Vince yanked open a hidden compartment, revealing a portable telephone. He quickly dialled. 'I hope he's awake.'

The three of them leaned close to the earpiece.

'Big D?' Vince called. 'Are you there? It's us!'

After a moment, they got an answer. 'Don't call me Big D! I am your Great Uncle Dracula! Now, why are you boys calling me at this hour?'

'There was just an attack on the school, uncle,' Vince said. 'Whoever it is, they just turned one of the other kids into an old lady, and then she died of old age.'

'We're trapped in the grounds, sir!' Frank quickly told him. 'No one can get out…' The three of them looked up as the police arrived and ran at the barrier, only to bounce off of it. '…or in.'

'Ay, ay, ay. Give me a moment to wake up for this.' He took that moment. 'Did you see anybody?'

'Just a living mummy and a daywalking vampire,' Vince said.

Big D was silent for a moment. 'I'm sorry, boy. Did you say a daywalking vampire?'

'Yes. And I don't think she was like me.'

'Very unlikely,' Big D said. 'No, no. Far more likely is that she has a disease called Humanitis.'

'Humanitis?' Vince asked.

'Yes, so you need to stay in human form for now, Vincent. It's highly contagious, but it only affects vampires. What happens is that the vampire loses their vampiric traits over a number of centuries until they drop into just being a dead body, and that includes forgetting that they are vampires in the first place. They're used to be hospitals where they would quarantine and treat the afflicted.'

'Okay,' Vince said. 'Do you know what's going on?'

'Obviously, someone's trying to regain their own youth by draining it out of teenagers,' Dracula said. 'You boys are the only supernatural creatures with access to them so you need to find out who and how, and you need to stop them.'

'Us?' Frank asked.

'Get under the main school building,' Big D said. 'I'll try to send someone in underground. There's an immunisation shot that will give you an immunity to Humanitis, Vincent. Apart from that possibility, I can't think of a single way to get anyone past that barrier. So, for now, you're on your own. Vincent, just keep your distance from that vampire.' He hung up.

'Well, I guess that's it,' Vince said. 'We get under the school and, meanwhile, try to work out what's going on up there.'

'How's a blimp look?' Howard asked as they climbed out of the car.

'What?' Vince asked.

Howard pointed up. Frank cried out in alarm as he looked. Vince spun around and looked up. There was a massive blimp floating over the roof of the school. It cast a massive shadow over the school grounds. If that was supposed to be intimidating, they were doing an awfully good job of it.

'How are we gonna get under the school, Vince?' Frank demanded.

Another beam was shot out, originating from a device on the bottom of the blimp. It hit one of the freshman boys. He instantly aged into an old man and his legs buckled under him. The students around him screamed and scampered back. He was dead just moments later. Vince ground his teeth.

'I've got an idea,' he said.

:[

Dr. Dred laughed maniacally as he gathered more and more youth. His hair became darker and the lines slowly erased from his face. He was feeling younger and fitter than he had in a very long time. These teenagers really were doing wonders for his complexion. Of course, this blue tinge still never left his skin.

'Brilliant plan, boss,' Toad said.

'We already have the youth of three teenagers,' Fly remarked, looking through the periscope, 'but they have now dropped dead.'

'Oh, small detail.' Dr. Dred waved it off. 'This is my most ingenious plan yet! Nothing can stop me!'

:[

George Halloway was the janitor at this particular school.

He was just as terrified as the kids and the teachers when the attack came. He also knew about the three orphan boys who were raised by Vincent James's uncle. He didn't know the story there, and he'd never met the man. Still, he clearly took good care of the boys. He'd even installed a portable telephone in their car so they could call him.

That was how he found himself leading the boys down below the school.

'I sure hope your uncle's right,' Halloway said. 'Here.' He handed the James boy a flashlight.

'Thanks.' The boy sat on the edge of the hole that led down into the sewers that ran right under the school. He took the flashlight and tucked it into his belt.

'Now, be careful on the way down. The ladder is quite slippery. Once you get to the bottom, go left. That's the quickest way out if you can get through, and it'll lead you to a pot hole behind the police line.'

'Got it,' the boy said. 'All right. Howard, Frank, you know what to do.' He hopped down and climbed down.

Howard Bane and Frank Herbert looked at each other.

'I don't like this,' Frank said.

'Yeah,' Howard said. 'But I guess it needs to be done.' The two boys turned and walked out of the room. He presumed they went to join the other students.

Halloway took a deep breath and settled in to wait.

:[

There was a strict school rule that no student, at any time, was to end up on the roof – not even to fetch a sports ball.

Frank and Howard climbed up anyway. It was the only place they could transform without risking witnesses. And because everyone was hiding, no one came to confront them for climbing up. As soon as they were up there, they quietly slipped across the roof to a covered area. Then the two of them looked at each other.

'You got a spare pair of shoes in your locker, right?' Frank asked.

'Always,' Howard said. 'Good thing you don't really change size.'

'Yeah. All right. Let's do this.' Frank transformed first. His skin turned green. Silver bolts pressed out from either side of his neck, as if they were natural appendages. Electricity crackled around his body.

Howard suddenly began to grow brown fur to match his hair. His nose and mouth extended into a snout. His human ears transformed into wolf ears and flicked up from under his hair. His hands and feet transformed, growing and extending into clawed hands and his feet turned into large clawed paws, ripping out of his shoes.

Howard automatically howled.

:[

A howl ripped through the air.

Dr. Dred came to the edge of his Dredgible. 'What was that?'

'I sounded like a wolf, master,' Toad said.

'At this hour?' Dr. Dred demanded. 'Don't be ridiculous, Toad! What kind of wolf would be out in a city in broad daylight?'

:[

Vince crept through the sewers. Since turning into his other form wasn't advisable, he was using the flashlight Mr. Halloway had given him. He wasn't going for the exit, though. If the police realised they could get into the school grounds via the sewers, they would. And those guys had a blimp. There was no way of knowing what they'd do if they noticed the police vanishing from the outside.

Besides, Big D said they had to deal with it.

:[

'How're we gonna do this, Howler?' Frank asked, using the names Big D had insisted upon them using when they were in their monstrous forms. His was Frankie. Personally, he didn't see how such a small change would fool anyone.

Howard – or Howler now – pointed up to the device on the bottom of the blimp. 'Drak said the youth-sucking beams are coming from that device up there!'

'This ought to do it.' Frankie picked up a cricket ball that'd been flung up onto the roof at some point in the past. He took a moment. While he didn't play spots, it didn't mean he didn't know how. It was just that, even in human form, his strength was far beyond the norm. The combination of his strength and his clumsiness meant that the school's coaches were glad he didn't try for the team.

Frankie swung his arm around and around and then he pitched the ball.

:[

There was an explosion on the underside of the Dredgible, rocking the whole craft.

'What was that?' Dr. Dred demanded. 'Fly, go and look!'

'Yes, sir, Dr. Dred!' Fly quickly flew over the edge of the Dredgible. In the next moment, he was back. 'The Youth Drainer is destroyed, Dr. Dred!'

'Who is responsible for this?' Dr. Dred bellowed.

Before either Fly or Toad could answer, something leapt up over the edge of the Dredgible. Dred cried out in alarm and jerked back. It wasn't that he was frightened of the two-legged wolf in front of him. He just hadn't been expecting him. He landed and gave a wide, toothy grin. 'Oh,' he said. 'We're the Drak Pack.'

'What?' Dred demanded. How the heck did they get in here? It was specifically designed to avoid interference. 'Grab him! Where are Mummy-Man and Vampira?!'

'Oh,' the wolf said, 'they're being dealt with.'

:[

Vampira ducked as Mummy-Man was flung overhead.

She wasn't sure what manner of creature he was, but he was equally as strong as Mummy-Man. He stood there and waited as Mummy-Man shook himself off and charged again. He collided with the green fellow and pushed him back but the other man growled and pushed back. Vampira frowned.

It looked like she'd have to step in.

:[

Vince turned his head. 'About time!'

'You are just like your uncle, boy,' the vampire spoke with affection as he stepped out of the deep shadows of the sewers. Ruthven was an old friend of Big D's, much older than him and the closest thing the supernatural world had to a doctor. 'All the time in the world, and yet so impatient.'

'Well, I don't have all the time in the world,' Vince said. 'Frankie and Howler are up there, fighting by themselves.'

'Yes, once they lose the element of surprise, they'll need your help.' Ruthven brandished a syringe. 'Well, then, roll up your sleeve and we'll give you this.'

Vince quickly did as asked. 'Big D said there used to be hospitals for this thing.'

'Oh, yes,' Ruthven said. 'It made the vampiric world feel better to know the afflicted were quarantined. Even the afflicted felt better about them. They'd always sign themselves in if they displayed any symptoms.' He took a hold of Vince's arm and started preparing his skin for the needle.

'What happened to it?'

Ruthven raised an eyebrow pointedly.

'Oh. Right.'

'Quite.' Ruthven pressed the needle into the vein. 'Now, the only reason this works is because you have a beating heart. Your human part doesn't hurt either. It will take a few minutes to circulate around your entire body. After you deal with these knuckleheads, I'll check you again. You know, just to be sure.' He depressed the needle.

'I guess I'll see you at the house, then.'

'You will.'

:[

Howler ground his teeth as he was thrown from the blimp.

He landed easily enough, though, sliding across the ground on all fours. Fly – that was what that "Dr. Dred" guy had called him – came after him again. A moment later and Howler had to jump up as Frankie was thrown in his general direction. He landed with a grunt and paused for a moment.

'Well, now I am getting mad,' he said.

'About being thrown around?' Howler asked, cause the madder Frankie got, the stronger he got.

'That too,' Frankie pushed himself up, but in the next moment bandages came out of nowhere and wrapped around them.

The walking mummy began mumbling.

'Yes,' the vampiress said. 'Very good job, Mummy-Man. Now, let's tie them up properly.'

Uh oh.