36 people were dead from the attack on Luz's school, not counting nine of the attackers. In Camila's opinion, they weren't people, so she wasn't including them in the list of the dead. Additionally, 57 people had been wounded, 19 of them severely. 24 children had their hearts ritualistically cut out to cast the fake ritual and five more had been shot, in addition to seven teachers, including Luz's science teacher and Principal Weiss. Weiss had been killed when he refused to call an assembly to trap all his students even under threat of torture. He'd rushed the nearest shooter, knowing he'd be killed, rather than submit.

The police and members of the LEC arrived shortly after Odalia's death. After a brief but intense gunfight that had killed six of the attackers, the remaining 14 surrendered and were arrested. Catherine was also arrested. The attackers weren't members of Havik's mercenary corporation, but rather members of a militia calling themselves the Knights of Humanity. They claimed they'd been mind controlled into it, but no one seemed to be buying this excuse. Odalia had been taken to the Demon Realm and placed in Vee's former cage in the Conformatorium. The official story was that she had suffered a stroke and was being taken back to her home to get medical attention. Luz's memories had thankfully been returned to her very soon after the situation was resolved.

With Odalia very publicly having participated in the deadliest school shooting and third deadliest mass shooting in American history, all the political capital she'd accumulated completely dissipated. It just was not politically expedient to parrot her lies anymore. Certainly there'd be plenty of other people waiting to take her place to lie to the public about the Demon Realm, but at least Odalia's supporters had huge amounts of egg on their faces and were trying frantically to rehabilitate themselves. The sad thing was that they'd probably succeed. But such was life. One couldn't fix everything, especially in the realm of politics.

Camila had been very, very worried that Luz would blame herself for the attack on the school, but for once, Luz's legendary guilt complex did not rear its head. Dr. Henderson had been helpful in that respect, Camila understood, but most of it was because Luz just was done blaming herself for the actions of others. It also came out that Odalia had been planning on attacking Luz's school ever since Amity got back her memories, before Luz had challenged her to a duel, so that was also helpful in preventing Luz from blaming herself.

According to Steve, though, Avery was not nearly so fortunate. It had been Gus's idea to have Avery infiltrate Odalia's organization through Catherine and the two of them were the only ones who were aware that Avery was undercover. Avery kept on beating themself up about not having realized that Catherine would alter the ritual so that it was "powered" by the hearts of their classmates. There had been nothing anywhere near that in the fake ritual about hearts or any human body parts at all. They also blamed themself for failing to somehow divine that Odalia was going to attack the school when Catherine kept it from them until the attackers were literally already there. It was not logical for Avery to blame themself, of course, but the fact of the matter was that they did anyway.

Fortunately, while Dr. Henderson did not see Avery in a professional capacity due to the conflict of interest involved in working with his friend's child, he had been able to give Avery a great deal of reassurance in his capacity as Avery's surrogate uncle. In fact, Steve's friends had been around a lot more recently, including the ones who had moved away from Seattle, in an effort to cheer up Avery and reassure them.

With Odalia dealt with and Swaard dead, the only one left to deal with was Havik. The Mariners had won three games in the World Series and the Mets had won three as well, the most recent of which had been that very day, setting things up for a final confrontation in the seventh game of the World Series, held at T-Mobile Park. There was no doubt that Havik was going to strike there. If he had his way, tens of thousands of people, innocent civilians, would die, and the Demon Realm would be blamed. If that happened, war would be inexorable. The American public's thirst for vengeance would overwhelm everything else.

The good news was thanks to Avery's undercover efforts, they finally knew how to stop the ritual. That assumed, of course, that Catherine had been telling them the truth, but in Camila's opinion, she had been. According to Avery, it had been the easiest thing in the world to convince Catherine that the thing she'd wanted most in the world – her daughter returning to her – was true, and once that happened, Catherine just assumed that Avery could be trusted implicitly and spilled the beans on anything they wanted to know to "strengthen their mother-daughter bond." Of course, disrupting the ritual would be easier said than done, because Havik's forces would no doubt put up fierce resistance. It would be a battle for the ages.

And Camila was ready to fight in it. She was ready to strike a blow against the man who had murdered her husband, to finally get her revenge after all these years. She had to admit it: she was ready to kill Havik. He absolutely deserved it, and it would make her feel so much better once the bastard was dead. So when the time came to fight Havik's forces at T-Mobile Park, Camila would be there, gun in one hand and chancla in the other.

But for now, there was one thing left to do before that. It was the anniversary of Eduardo's death, and it was time to visit his grave. Camila had thought it would be just her, Luz, and Amity, but there were some more unexpected but highly fitting individuals with her as well: King, Eda, and Raine. Eda had arrived in town to fight in the upcoming battle and King had stowed away in her hair, completely without her knowledge. At least, that was her excuse. Camila highly suspected otherwise. Either way, there was no way King could be allowed to fight. Luz was an experienced warrior, even though Camila wished she was not, but King was nine.

Eda reached out and squeezed Camila's hand. Raine squeezed the other hand. It felt nice to have support on either side of her. "Hey, we don't have to do this, Cammy," Eda said, displaying the gentle side of her that she wouldn't trot out for anyone other than her family. "If you think it's too soon…"

"No, I think it's the right time to do this," Camila said firmly and she led everyone to Eduardo's gravestone. There was a somber silence. She knew that in the Demon Realm, after people died, they were always cremated; it was considered blasphemous to have corpses interact with the corpse of the Titan. Fortunately, her family knew that humans did things differently and respected that.

King stepped up to the grave first. "Um, hi, papi. I'm King, and I guess I'm your son? I don't know, really. Mami wanted me to be her son, and I hope that's okay with you. Luz talks a lot about you, about how amazing you were. I wish I'd had a chance to meet you. But, uh, I know your daughter. She's a great person, a great sister. And you should be proud of her." He stepped back from the grave. Luz scooped him up and gave him a hug. Unlike normally, King didn't even give a token protest.

Eda stepped over to the grave next. "So Cammy's probably already told you this, but I'm dating your wife!" She gave finger guns at the grave. Luz looked over at the nearest tree, looking absolutely mortified. "And she's one hell of a woman. One hell of a woman. I love her. I'm not the sort of gal who just tosses those words around…it took me a long time to admit it."

"A very long time," Raine teased her. "It was quite embarrassing to watch."

"Raine, you're making me look bad in front of Cammy's dead husband!" Eda whined. Camila let out a soft laugh. "I'm not trying to compete with you, Eduardo. I know I can't do that. All I can offer is that I'll do the best I can to love her in the way she deserves, in the way you did." She stepped away, but then stepped back to the grave a second later. "Oh, and also, I've got to talk about Luz. Your daughter is an amazing girl. She's brought light to all of our lives, mine especially. I was just going through the motions when she showed up. She showed me that life was worth living again."

"Eda!" Luz said with an embarrassed look on her face. Eda kissed her on the forehead. She was such a good mother to Luz. Camila remembered how jealous she'd been of Eda when the two of them had met at how Eda had forged a connection with Luz that seemed so much stronger than Camila's own connection with her. But as time went on, she came to realize that her insecurities were untrue, that Luz cared for Camila just as much as she did Eda.

Raine stepped over to the grave. "Uh, hi. Hi, there. I'm Raine Whispers. Maybe you've heard of me? Like, you know, with Camila mentioning me. I'm not saying I'm so famous that you've heard of me in the afterlife or whatever." They smacked themself on the forehead. "Ugh, I'm rambling. Look, I'm not good at this social stuff, so I'll just say…I love Camila just as much as Eda does. I'll do anything to protect her. And if, you know, when we're all dead and in heaven, if there is, like, one, you want to be with Camila alone…I'll understand." They stepped back.

Camila thought she was about to cry at how sweet Raine was being. She had not given a single thought to how her relationship with Raine and Eda would go after she died, mostly because she didn't really believe in an afterlife that much anymore. But she was sure that if they indeed all ended up in heaven, she would just add Eduardo to their polycule. He would agree, she was sure.

Amity walked over to the grave and rubbed the top of the headstone. "Hi again. I'm still in love with your daughter…still amazed that I'm privileged to even know her, much less be her girlfriend. I hope you're happy with the two of us, wherever you are." She didn't appear to have anything else she wanted to say, so she just stepped back. A gust of wind reverberated through the graveyard. By the looks of her face, Amity seemed to take it as a sign that Eduardo was giving his approval from beyond the grave. Maybe it was. Who was Camila to say otherwise?

Camila stepped over to the headstone next. Words failed her for several minutes, as they always did. There was something about this moment that overwhelmed her, year after year, and it didn't get any better. "Eduardo…I'm so glad you had a chance to meet my partners. They mean a great deal to me. I love them, just as I loved you. I wish you were alive to meet them." Though Camila knew that if Eduardo was alive, she'd never have even considered being with Eda and Raine for a second. "You'll be happy to know that tomorrow, we're finally going to get a chance to avenge your murder once and for all. And then maybe things will finally calm down, because I'd really like to go a week without something traumatizing happening!" Everyone gave a laugh, even though Camila had meant it completely in earnest.

She stepped backwards, finally allowing Luz a chance to go over to the grave. "I'm going to have to start off by apologizing, dad." Camila furrowed her brow. Why did Luz feel she had the need to apologize to Eduardo? "Because I haven't been rooting for the Mets." Camila gave a loud guffaw. "I mean, how could I? The Mariners need all the support they can get!"

Camila gave Luz a warm smile. "He understands, mija. I told you he does."

"Well, anyway, I just wanna make it clear that the next time the Mets are in the World Series and facing anyone other than the Mariners, I'm gonna root for them, okay, Dad?" Luz said with a creaky smile. She was hiding a need to break down and cry under a perky attitude, Camila could tell. It would break sooner or later. Camila would be there when it did. "I love you so much, and I wish more than anything you were here to see all these wonderous things that're happening. To me, to Mami, to humanity. We're building a better world. Better worlds. And if it weren't for you, none of this would be possible."

She started trembling. "I just…I miss you so much, papi! I'll always miss you. I love you." She stepped backwards from the grave and fell into Camila's arms, tears running down her cheeks. Camila just held her as she cried.

When Luz had recovered herself, Camila nodded at Amity. Amity had made dozens of different arguments for why she should not be the one to do the Noceda family's yearly ritual, but Camila had countered them all and worn her down. It had to be Amity. It just had to be.

"Kuando se eskurese es para amaneser," Amity recited, and placed a small, flat rock atop the headstone. The sentence she'd said was Ladino for "when it's dark out, that's because dawn is coming." That sentence had always been an essential part of their ritual.

Camila would always miss Eduardo, but the fact that she had an even larger family than ever before to help her through these difficult times made it so much better for her. She looked at the people she'd come to love, members of no less than three different species from two different worlds, and she knew, she knew, that Eduardo would love them all as family too.


Clara was stunned at how close she'd come to death when the school was attacked. She'd been minding her own business in her history class when gunmen had just charged straight in, grabbed two kids at random, and then locked everyone inside. It had all happened so quickly that no one had gotten a chance to fight back. She'd known both of those kids. Not very well, but they were still on friendly terms. And Odalia's forces had carved their hearts out. Clara just thanked her lucky stars that none of the gunmen had recognized her as Vee's girlfriend. She had a hunch that her decision to date outside her species wouldn't exactly have endeared her to them, to say the least. But they could have. She could have died.

And Vee could have died too. Xe came so much closer to death than Clara had. Only Edric's rather advanced illusion had saved xyr hide at the last minute. As ever, Vee was completely unbothered by the whole thing, save for how it was affecting xyr girlfriends, but Willow was extremely shaken up. In the moment, she had genuinely believed that her datemate had been killed in front of her, and she couldn't stop thinking about it. Something about the mundane circumstances behind the attack made things worse for her. Hexside may not have been very safe in of itself, but apparently Principal Bump kept the place very safe from external dangers, which was no doubt a much bigger problem in the Demon Realm.

So when Luz asked Clara to participate in striking against Havik and his forces at the final game of the World Series and stopping his evil schemes, Clara had wholeheartedly agreed. Of course, she may have neglected to tell her parents. There was no need to worry them, after all. As far as the MacKinnon parents were concerned, Clara was just going to the World Series in order to watch the game and for no other reason. They had no other reason to suspect otherwise. Clara knew she'd be in so much trouble when they found out – and they would – but it was worth it. The attack at her school had crossed a line. She had to fight back.

Other than Odalia's defeat, the only good news about the attack was that it had the exact opposite effect on the students than the attackers had hoped for. Rather than lashing out at their extradimensional visitors, the students and faculty closed ranks around Vee and xyr friends. The exchange students were more popular than ever and no bullying of them was tolerated anymore, online or offline. If you messed with one of them, the message was being clearly sent, you messed with the whole school.

On the morning of the final game of the World Series, Clara's parents dropped her and Vee off at "Mr. Jacobs'" house. It was now an open secret in the school that Mr. Jacobs was Edric in disguise, and Clara was almost 90% certain that her dad knew Edric's true identity (she was less certain, but still about 70%, that her mom knew too), but Clara hadn't said anything for the purposes of plausible deniability. Edric and Willow rode with Clara and Vee to a parking garage near T-Mobile Park, where they'd be meeting with the other volunteers for the mission.

They wouldn't be the only ones participating in it, it had to be noted. Most of the people involved were members of the Law Enforcement Coven. Luz's Aunt Lilith was personally leading the mission. But there were also a number of…shall we say, irregular forces participating, and it was hoped that their presence there would make the difference between success and failure.

A group of people that Clara didn't recognize were standing around a minivan. They appeared to have been led by a rough looking man who must have been in his sixties or seventies, wearing brass knuckles and carrying a baseball bat. Next to him was a man who must have been his identical twin brother, more of a rugged adventurer type than a hoodlum, toting a gun that looked like it belonged on the set of The Mandalorian. Four people in their twenties were also present, three women and a man. The man was carrying a hunting rifle; he looked like a dork at first glance, but on second glance gave the impression of being very, very dangerous. The redheaded woman next to him was toting an actual axe, like the kind lumberjacks used; by the adoring looks the man kept on shooting her, she was presumably involved with him. The second woman, who looked like she was the man's sister, was wearing clothes that made her look like a hippy, in sharp contrast to the huge sword she was carrying. The blond woman at her side didn't seem to be carrying any weapons, but Clara had a hunch that didn't make her any less dangerous.

"Hi, everyone!" Luz said with a wave, and Clara turned to face her. "We got some help from out of state. Meet the Pines family of Gravity Falls, Oregon, a perfectly normal town with absolutely no supernatural qualities to it in any way whatsoever." Clara gave her a flat look. "This is Eda's ex-husband Stan," she said, pointing at the hoodlum. Well, that seemed to fit. She proceeded to introduce Stan's twin brother as Ford, and the four younger people as Stan's great-niblings Dipper and Mabel and their respective wives Wendy and Pacifica.

"I also took the liberty of calling in some outside help," Avery's father announced. He was standing next to a much fancier looking car along with five people Clara didn't recognize. There was a long-haired man dressed in full tactical armor and toting an enormous sniper rifle, a short-haired man carrying a pistol, and a woman who didn't carry any weapons at all. They were all a few years younger than Mr. Harrington. The people next to her, a woman carrying a compact but very deadly looking machine pistol and a man holding a pair of machetes, looked to be about the same age as him. Mr. Harrington introduced them as Mike Wheeler and his husband Will; Jane Mayfield; and Mike's sister Nancy and her husband, Will's brother Jonathan, respectively.

Clara had no idea how to react to any of these unfamiliar individuals, so she decided to ignore them in favor of the people she did recognize. In addition to the exchange students and their families, there was also Prime Minister Clawthorne, an adorable demon who could only have been the King of Demons, Edric's boyfriend, and Amity's sister and her new wife.

Well, actually, King didn't look so adorable once he saw Clara. In fact, a towering rage appeared to come over him. He pointed at Clara and let out a squeak of anger. Clara very carefully kept all traces of how cute she thought it was off her face, especially since she knew what he was likely angry about.

"You!" he shouted. "You're the one who hurt my sister!"

"Yes," Clara admitted. "I'm really sorry, Your Majesty. I was a total idiot."

King scowled at her. "You sure were! Luz is a great person to be around and the best hugger in the multiverse! And you almost made her kill herself! I almost never met my sister, and it would have been all because of you!"

Luz put a hand on his shoulder. "King, thanks for defending my honor, but Clara and I have already made up. We're friends now."

King sulked. "Well…if Luz says you're cool, then I'll give you a chance." He jumped onto the roof of a car. "But beware! The King of Demons may forgive, but he never forgets! Hurt Luz again, and you'll have to face the Stuffed Animal Army of Darkness!" Facing the Stuffed Animal Army of Darkness sounded like something that Clara wanted to avoid at all costs, so she just nodded frantically. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "All right! Whose ass do I get to kick first?"

"Okay, first off, who taught you that word?" Viney demanded. King whistled conspicuously but did not proceed to rat anybody out. "Second, you're not getting involved in the fighting. You're going to be watching the game in our box seats like nothing is wrong."

"WHAT?!" King shouted. "How could you possibly sideline me, the King of Demons?"

"Obviously you're our most capable warrior, King," Emira said patiently, her expression shockingly earnest. "If you're not there, then Havik will underestimate our forces and get overconfident, thus making mistakes. In a way, you have the most important job of us all!"

"Not to mention that you'll reduce Eda's effectiveness as a combatant if she has to be constantly worrying about you," Hunter argued.

King stroked his chin. "Hmm. On the one hand, this sounds awfully like a lie to get me out of doing something dangerous. On the other hand, I hear they have pizza in the box seats. Okay! For the sake of pizza – I mean, tactical advantage – I'll go along with it."

"Thanks, King," Emira said sounding honestly grateful. "We'll make it up to you later. Viney and I are going to join you and keep you company, okay?"

"Fine," King grumbled. "But I will be demanding tribute in chocolate later!" In Clara's opinion, this sounded fair enough. She was glad that Emira and Viney would be watching over him, though. She didn't know them very well, but given that they'd helped orchestrate the very clever plan that had led to Amity getting her memories back, they must have been quite cunning, and thus able to keep up with any schemes King might undertake to sneak out and join the fighting.

Luz cast an ice glyph and created a platform, then jumped onto the top of the nearest car, seemingly for no other reason than dramatic effect. "Friends, demons, witches, lend me your ears!" Vee eagerly pulled out a knife from the pocket of xyr jacket and moved it towards the pointed ears of the female witch form xe was wearing. "NOT LITERALLY!" Luz shrieked. Vee sheepishly withdrew the knife.

Luz took a deep breath. "Now is the moment we've been waiting for, like, ever. The moment when we finally strike against our most hated adversary! Wait, no, we already did that. Our second most hated adversary!"

"What does that kid with the runny nose have to do with anything?" King wondered.

Luz just glared at him. "Some of us may never return from today's noble fight." Vee let out a squeak of fright and Clara glared at Luz, who appeared to be blissfully unaware. "We will remember them as brave and noble heroes! There may well be a lot of them, because, wow, this is not going to be easy. But we have a cause! It is the cause of justice! It won't shield us from bullets, but it will make us feel better about ourselves if we get shot!"

Caroline goggled at her. "Luz, as your press secretary, it is my duty to inform you that you're even worse at giving speeches than planning things!" Luz gasped, looking legitimately stunned at the criticism.

Eda cleared her throat. "Look, I'll make this simple. We're here to kick the butts of Havik and his flunkies and chew trouble gum and we're all out of trouble gum!" She looked eagerly at Camila. "Did I say it right?" Camila gave a so-so gesture. "So let's get those…uh, meanies," she concluded, swapping out whatever she was about to say upon realizing King was still listening.

Luz wiped a tear from her eyes. "I couldn't have said it any better myself."

"No, you couldn't," Caroline agreed.

Luz glared at her, and then looked over at Sean. "Can you pull off what we discussed earlier?"

Sean raised an eyebrow. "Are you seriously asking that question?"

Luz grinned. "I know, I shouldn't doubt your skills."

Sean did a face palm. "Uh, no! No, Luz, of course I couldn't pull it off! That's, like, a huge feat of hacking, and I'm just an amateur. I mean, it's really never been pulled off before." Luz looked panicky for a second, but Sean gave her a reassuring smile. "The good news is that I know people who know people who can, and I got everything set up."

"I knew I could count on you," Luz said perkily. Clara didn't bother asking what the plan was. If she needed to know, she would have been told. Besides, she was utterly hopeless with tech stuff; she probably wouldn't even understand it even if Sean told her.

Dipper and Wendy took a huge crate out of their van and dumped it on the ground. When they opened it, Clara saw that it was filled to the brim with weapons, both of the normal gun variety and more exotic looking ones like the ones that Ford had. Clara had no idea what some of the exotic guns would do if she fired them, so she just grabbed a simple pistol. Most of the magic users decided to just rely on their own spells, although Edric did grab a shotgun.

Gus used an illusion to make a sort of a hologram of the layout of the stadium. "We've identified four loci of the spells." He pointed to four different positions in the surprisingly vast sublevels of the stadium. "In theory, shutting down just one of them will ruin the spell. Unfortunately, they all need to be shut down simultaneously or they'll trigger a backup spell that will blow up everything in a thirty mile radius. That means we have to secure all four areas before we disrupt the spell. And keep in mind that we can't be 100% certain about any of this – we got this from Avery who got it from their mother, who is both a liar and delusional."

Clara furrowed her brow. "Uh, not that I'm doubting you, Gus, but…exactly why are you in charge of planning this again?"

"I'm not," Gus said. "I'm just giving you all a briefing. Lilith made the actual plans." That did make more sense, Clara had to concede. It also made her feel better. As awesome as Gus was, he was still a child. "This whole scheme of Havik's is just abominable. And he totally stole it from the first Kingsman movie!"

Luz gave an appalled look at Steve. "You let Gus watch the Kingsman movies?!"

"We have more important things to deal with right now, Luz!" Steve reminded her. Luz did an I'm watching you gesture at him. Steve looked like he was struggling to avoid laughing.

Gus cleared his throat. "Like I was saying, LEC agents will be comprising most of the groups involved. Steve and his friends will be going with group A. The Gravity Falls people will go with group B. All of us will be going in group C, which is likely where we'll encounter the most resistance. And group D will be entirely comprised of LEC agents, including Lilith. Are there any questions?" Everyone raised their hands. "Excellent!" Gus said with a clapping of his hands. "It's awesome to have an inquisitive mind. I'm not going to be answering them, but still, inquisitive minds are cool!"

Camila calmly loaded an absolutely gigantic looking energy rifle. "Actually, I have a question that I think needs answering," she said. "How are we going to sneak in with all these weapons?"

"Illusions!" Gus responded. "I mean, I'm good, but some of the illusions experts in the LEC are just astonishing. As far as the humans are concerned, we'll just look like normal cops."

Camila nodded. "Then let's make Havik cry and let slip the dogs of war."


It was time. This was the moment that Arend Havik had been born for. There'd been quite a few obstacles in his path to greatness, of course. Operation Eschaton hadn't been his first preference for leading the world into the greatest war it had ever known. But one by one, that hateable sorceress Luz Noceda had slammed all the doors he'd tried to open in his face. Killing her and blaming it on the humans? Thwarted! Overthrowing the American government, installing his puppet ruler as president, and launching the invasion that way? Thwarted! So, no, he had been given no other choice but to cast a ritual that would kill maybe over a hundred thousand people when he was done.

At least Odalia was finally out of the way, thanks to his inspired stroke of genius to suggest that she attack Noceda's school. That had been the very definition of a win-win situation for him. Either Noceda and/or her allies would die or Odalia would. The latter outcome, while less desirable than the former, still was a very good thing. Odalia had become just too much of a wild card. Her mind magic had been an asset, true, but it was becoming abundantly clear that her utter instability just made her impossible to manipulate. It was better to have her out of the way. The fewer X factors existed when the eschaton was immanentized, as it were, the better.

That had also been one of the reasons why he had insisted on having Swaard killed. True, Swaard was a loyal soldier, but he had clearly outlived his usefulness the instant he allowed himself to get captured by a mere child. And he'd obviously sold them out, as evinced by the fact that he just waltzed out of the consulate of his own free will. Traitors got what they deserved. Havik just regretted that he didn't have a chance to fire the kill shot himself.

But now was not a time to linger on regrets. He was about to make history. Not since Gavrilo Princip had one single man's act of violence caused such an epic conflagration as the one Havik was about to spot. The mere thought of Seattle turned into an orgy of blood and destruction put a smile to his lips. All the bonds between people would evaporate. Parents would gladly bash open their children's skulls open and vice versa. There would be no way for even the most skeptical of individuals to attribute it to anything less than a supernatural origin. So many dead people!

And the best part was that after all these months of thwarting his plans, Luz would be one of them. Havik was no fool. He knew all his enemies were going to be coming to T-Mobile Park to thwart his plans. He welcomed their presence, because he knew they were going to fail. When the ritual was activated, they'd be affected by it too. Havik would be spared due to the wards he'd cast upon himself, but his soldiers would also be affected, even though they thought they were immune. Dead men told no tales after all. It was going to be just awesome.

"Take them out at the ballgame," Havik sang under his breath as he and his troops, at least one hundred strong, approached the front gates. They looked like American soldiers, heavily armed and quite dangerous. "Take them out and the crowd…let them all die in hideous agony…I don't care if they ever come back…"

"What's going on here?" the guard at the gates asked, looking frightened.

Havik pulled out a pistol and shot the guard between the eyes. The glyph he had carved on the barrel made the gun completely silent. The shot had not even sounded as much as a whisper. No one would even have noticed. The various security guards working the front area of the stadium seemed to get an inkling that something was wrong, but Havik's forces were more numerous, better armed, and more ruthless. It took them no less than twenty minutes to secure that space, killing civilians and security guards alike as they made their way to the sublevels. The completely silent gunshots made for perfect killing methods. Some handy illusion glyphs made the plethora of corpses completely undetectable as they were dragged into rooms and piled up in the dozens.

Whistling cheerfully, Havik stumbled upon a family, two teenagers and their parents, wandering the halls. Havik's troops raised their rifles, but Havik held up a hand to stop them. He'd been wanting to try something for a while and this seemed like the best time to do it. The glyphs had been an extremely important resource for him, but the fact that he needed some sort of material to create them was a weakness. That was until Havik had come up with the utterly brilliant idea of tattooing the glyphs onto himself. True, he had noticed that his physical form became a mite…unstable with the glyphs tattooed onto him, but he'd been able to offset that by eating palismen. If absolutely necessary, he would just stay away from the Demon Realm and allow his magic to atrophy, making them just normal tattoos again. What could possibly go wrong?

He tapped a glyph tattooed onto his wrist and fire shot out of his open palm and incinerated the parents instantaneously. Havik took his time burning the teenagers to death. Noceda had given him a true hatred of children and it was nice for him to revel in the agony that these stupid idiots were experiencing. It was but a taste of what was awaiting Noceda.

Of course, Noceda would not be killed. No, that would be far too easy. First, he would make her watch as he killed everyone she loved in front of her slowly and painfully. Then he'd torture her to death in the most excruciating way possible. Ah, was there no better hobby than inflicting agony on people? No, there was not.

The resistance that he received in the sublevels was even more pitiful than the resistance they got in the main levels. It was really quite sad just how badly secured this baseball stadium was. It was like they hadn't even considered having to protect the place from an army of very heavily armed mercenaries disguised as soldiers at all! Such sloppiness. The whole thing was wrapped up by the time the third inning began.

Havik used a construction glyph on his arm to create a throne and lay back in it. His enemies would come to him. He wouldn't have to lift a finger. Everything was coming up roses…and blood.


Luz was not a girl who got angry easily, but she was angry now. No, she was absolutely infuriated. This should have been a triumphant day for her. It was the first World Series the Mariners had ever been in, and she should have been enjoying herself. She should have been able to lay back and watch the Mets go down like they'd never gone down before. But it was more than that. Eduardo should have been there with her. He should have been there to be with her family, to regal Amity with all manner of embarrassing stories, to teach King the noble art of barbecuing. But he wasn't because that piece of filth masquerading as a human being, Arend Havik, had stolen his life away from him.

Eduardo would have loved the Boiling Isles, and Luz had empirical proof of that, since his alternate universe self had adjusted to the Demon Realm like a duck took to water. If he'd been alive, he would have been overjoyed at all the adventures she had gotten herself into. (The danger, probably not so much.) He would have been so proud of her when she'd come back from the Demon Realm with a whole new outlook on life and an awesome girlfriend to boot. He would have supported her through thick and thin.

But Swaard had ran him down on Havik's orders and all Luz was now left with was what ifs. The wound that Eduardo's death had caused her would never truly be healed, but her pain would sure be eased by taking down his murderer. Havik had evaded justice for far too long, and Luz was ready to make everything that he built collapse around him.

It was scary how easily Havik's forces had managed to secure the facility without anyone noticing. True, everyone was a little bit perturbed by the fact that there were armed soldiers patrolling the halls, but no one seemed to suspect that they weren't authorized to be there for a second. The benefits of an even feigned authority, Luz supposed.

Luz's team was going straight through the front gates, while the other teams were going in through side entrances and, in one of their cases, through the sewers. For just a second, Luz wondered if, perhaps, it was not a smart idea to take part in this battle, given that she was only fifteen years old and going up against professional soldiers and the son of Emperor Belos. But then she rightfully rejected those preposterous thoughts. Maybe it was egotistical of her, but it truly felt like everything she'd done, everything she'd fought for, was leading up to this moment, as if it was the climactic scene in a fanfic or something like that.

She had absolute trust in her friends and family. Camila, so wise and caring. Amity, sweet and fearsome in equal measures. Willow, a juggernaut of awesomeness. Vee, whose adorable nature belied a strength and power hardly ever matched. Avery, adaptable and loyal to the core. Caroline, a true friend among friends. Edric, who had finally embraced his true self. Hunter, who was making up for his inaction in fighting his uncle by striking against the forces of his cousin. Gus, whose quirky nature was now completely replaced by that of an implacable warrior. Clara, who had stepped up to the role of a true friend that she'd once foolishly thrown away. Raine, who was mastering their immense fear moment by moment, their combat flute at the ready. And, of course, Eda the Owl Lady, who was in full harpy form and looked like one of the furies of old, ready to punish the wicked.

"Let's do this thing," Luz shouted, and ran through the gates of the stadium with her mother's chancla in her hand. Camila had passed it onto her daughter as a way of displaying just how proud of her she was. Of course, Luz also had a variety of glyphs to use. She wouldn't just rely on what was essentially just a sandal, even if it had god-tier power in the right hands.

Holes appeared in the walls next to them with absolutely no fanfare whatsoever. There were no sounds denoting that the bullets were being fired, and it chilled Luz to the bone. Any second, she could lose her life to a stray bullet. Yes, they'd had all manner of defensive spells laid on them by members of the LEC, but who knew what countermeasures Havik had available to them.

Without any pretense, a squadron of mercenaries advanced from every direction. Their assault rifles were raised, glyphs carved into them, and they were carefully firing short, sharp bursts of automatic fire in the direction of Luz and her friends. Without the defensive spells blocking the bullets, they'd be toast, and the shields would only last for so long. It was time to go on the attack.

While the mercenaries' weapons may have been silent, the weapons that Luz and her friends were using were not. Compared to the noise of the crowd, who were particularly enthusiastic to get a Mariners victory for the first time in history, it barely registered to those outside the area, but the sound of blasters and guns being fired, spells being readied, and the like, threatened to overwhelm Luz's senses. Raine, noticing that Luz wasn't the only one overwhelmed, retreated slightly and started playing an anti-noise sensitivity spell on their combat flute. Luz breathed a sigh of relief.

Someone punched her in the stomach, and Luz instinctively fired an ice spear into her attacker's chest. He was thrown across the room and knocked unconscious by the force of the blow. He would probably bleed to death soon enough, but Luz quickly dispersed of that thought. She would deal with the consequences of her actions later on. A single second's distraction would be fatal. Speaking of distractions, Luz risked a glance over at Amity, who was conjuring compact abominations with very sharp spikes instead of arms, and saw that a mercenary was trying to sneak behind her.

Luz cast a glyph enabling her to basically pole vault across the room and landed next to the mercenary. "Stay away from my Amity," Luz snarled at him, then kneed him in the groin, gave him an upper cut to the jaw with the chancla, and then finished it off with a glyph enhanced punch to the solar plexus, knocking Amity's attacker out.

"Thanks for that, Luz," Amity said, and then looked down at Luz, her eyes widening in horror. "You've been hurt!"

"'tis but a scratch!" Luz said in her best Black Knight impersonation, which, given the appalled expression on Amity's face, must have been as unimpressive as her Downton Abbey impression.

Someone let out a maniacal laugh behind her, and Luz whirled around to find that it was Camila, twirling around and blasting mercenary after mercenary as if she was at a dance. "This is surprisingly therapeutic!" Camila said. "God, I wish I'd had this opportunity years ago!"

Next to her, Clara tried her best to shoot at the mercenaries, but she was obviously outclassed by everyone else, even Edric, whose aim with his shotgun was surprisingly solid. "I feel so useless," she complained.

"Nonsense!" Vee said. "Your cuteness gives me strength!" Xe had transformed into some creature that looked like a cross between a velociraptor and King Kong and proceeded to rip the head off of a mercenary with the same difficulty that Luz would have in opening a jar of peanut butter. Clara gave a blush that rivaled some of Amity's most furious ones, apparently not at all bothered by her beloved killing someone in front of her.

"Take that!" Gus shouted, thrusting a pair of daggers at anyone who stood in his path. "And that! Can't you come up with your own, original evil plan? You just had to rip off an awesome spy movie, one that, I might add, will become completely unwatchable now that it's been tainted by you guys." A mercenary tried to sneak up behind him, but Gus just casually stuck his dagger in the man's eye. Even Luz had to wince at that.

"Less talking, more fighting?" Willow suggested as a vine shot from her fist that impaled a mercenary vertically, causing his innards to spill all over the floor.

"Not much left to fight," Avery commented, casually shooting mercenaries with precise chest shots, and maybe the odd headshot or two in a clear effort to try to look cool, which was belied by the fact that 80% of their headshots actually missed. Their statement was quite right; Luz and her team had wiped out most of the troops in that area of the stadium.

Hunter's staff had been broken early in the fight, rendering him magicless, but nowhere close to powerless, as one mercenary found out when he tried to stab Hunter with a combat knife, only for Hunter to summon a machine pistol to his hand with a telekinesis glyph and blast the mercenary full of bullets. He fought back to back with his boyfriend, ruining anyone who dared to come anywhere near them. "I'm kinda surprised no one else has noticed this," he mused. Luz was surprised too. The noise was much quieter than a pitched battle otherwise would have been, but still fairly loud.

"I think there are oracle glyphs causing civilians to not notice," Vee remarked. "I can taste them. Do you want me to eat them?"

"Uh, no, I think having a full panic is something we don't need right now," Luz said. She looked over at Eda for confirmation, and she gave her a thumbs up.

Finally, the last of the mercenaries fell to Camila's blaster and silence once more reigned. Luz was not about to rest on her laurels, though. They had the sublevels to wade through and then they had to confront Havik, which would likely be a lot easier said than done.

Camila let out a shriek when she saw Luz. "Oh my God," she gasped. Luz rolled her eyes. Her mother could be so melodramatic sometime. Like no one else had gotten punched in the history of the world before. It was no big deal. "Luz, you have to get medical attention."

Luz's eyes flashed with fury. "Let me make one thing very clear," she hissed out. "I have been waiting nine years to confront Dad's killer. I am not going to sit things out just because I got a booboo."

"That is hardly what I would call a booboo!" Camila said in a panicked tone. "Amity, can't you do something to persuade her?"

"It's Luz," Amity said dryly. "Not even the Titan himself would be able to change her mind when she got an idea in her head." Luz grinned. Her girlfriend knew her so well!

"You need to at least use a healing glyph," Camila begged her.

Luz laughed. "I'm not gonna let a little bit of pain slow me down! Plenty of time for it later. Time's a wasting!" And without another word, she found the door leading to the sublevels and went through it. She grabbed her phone and dialed Grunkle Stan's number. "Any progress?"

"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" Mabel's voice echoed in the background of the call. "SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!"

"Uh, yeah, the area's secure," Grunkle Stan said, sounding quite panicked. "Really secure. Kinda hard to imagine it getting more secure…"

"YOU SPIT THAT BLOOD OUT RIGHT NOW, MABEL!" Dr. Pines shouted in the background. "That's unhygienic!"

Luz quickly hung up the phone and dialed Steve's number next. "Uh, please tell me that the area is secure and there's no, like, blood drinking going on?"

There was dead silence for over thirty seconds. "Who told you Jonathan's a vampire?" Steve asked accusingly.

"You did," Luz said. "Just now."

This time, the silence lasted closer to a minute. While the silence was going on, three different mercenaries tried to ambush them, but they were all taken out one by one. Clara blasted one of them in the head, Edric gave another a shotgun blast to the groin, and Vee punched a hole through the third's chest and ate his heart with a lot of messy slurping noises.

"This is Eleven. The area's secure," a cool, calm woman's voice said eventually. That was a cool code name, Luz had to concede. She was jealous of Jane. Or maybe it was Nancy. She wasn't sure which and she wasn't about to ask, not when Eleven had gone to the trouble of crafting such a badass code name for herself. "And of course Jonathan's not a vampire. Steve was just making a joke. Am I understood, Your Highness?"

"Completely, Eleven!" Luz assured her. "Just a patented Steve Harrington prank. Over and out." Immediately after hanging up, she spun around and asked Avery eagerly, "Is your Uncle Jonathan really a vampire?"

Avery looked like they'd rather be doing anything else but answering her question. "Don't be absurd, Luz," Gus told her before Avery could respond. "Everyone knows vampires in the Human Realm sparkle in the daylight. Jonathan doesn't sparkle in the daylight, so he's not a vampire."

"That seems legit!" Luz said, not believing it for a single second.

A few more mercenaries attacked them on their way to the locus they were going to, but Luz could tell that their efforts were perfunctorily. They were taken down quite easily. Havik was waiting for them. The whole thing was a trap. Well, if there was one thing Luz had learned from watching Star Wars, it was that the proper thing to do with traps was always to spring them, regardless of the consequences. On the way there, she also managed to ascertain that Lilith's team had secured their area.

Luz paused before the door that would lead her to her most hated enemy's lair. It was a momentous occasion. Every choice she'd ever made, everything she'd ever learned, it was all to lead her here. "Luz, are you okay?" Eda said eventually. "Cause you're just standing there. Look, I'm no stranger to pressing on, but your wound looks kind of –"

"NO!" Luz shouted. "I'm fine. All out of trouble gum, right?"

"All out of trouble gum," Eda said with a grin, and then she kicked the door open.

Arend Havik sat upon a throne made of stone that was clearly manufactured through means of construction magic in the middle of a large, cavernous room. It looked like she was in some sort of a boiler room, maybe? Luz was not an expert on such things. How melodramatic of him…not that Luz could really object given her own propensity towards melodrama.

Of course, the surroundings weren't as alarming as Havik himself. He was shirtless and it was clear that he'd tattooed glyphs all over himself. Which, as any student of glyph magic could tell you, was a preposterously bad idea. Tattooing glyphs on oneself had a degenerative effect on the body, causing it to break down in the face of all the power being channeled into it. No one had a scientific reason why; the best guess Demon Realm society had come up with was that only the Titan was meant to wield power in such a manner. In fact, it really should have killed Havik already. Maybe it was effecting him differently because he was a human?

Havik touched a glyph on his chest and everyone but Luz and Havik was wrapped up in vines, slammed against the ceiling, and stuck to it. Luz pressed the button on the walkie talkie in her back pocket, and whispered "Now." She really hoped her signal would reach Sean and that it wasn't being scrambled somehow.

"Luz Noceda," Havik snarled at her. "I had thought you would be dumb enough to follow your friends down here. Has no one told you that war is no place for a girl such as yourself?"

"Oh, plenty of people tell me those things," Luz assured him. "I just never listen. So I'm gonna guess here, and you can tell me if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but do you wanna surrender?"

Havik touched his arm and Luz barely dodged a stream of fire that would have cooked her were it not for the defensive spells placed upon her. "Fokken poes," he hissed. Luz had no idea what he was saying, but it did not sound like words she wanted King repeating. "Don't you ever shut up?"

"Nope!" Luz said chirpily and hurled the chancla at him. Havik was so nonplussed by the move that it struck him square in the face…and bounced straight off his head because, at the end of the day, it was still a sandal. "Hey, look, there's no shame in losing. We defeated all your troops. There's, there's really just you left, buddy."

"I. Do. Not. Lose." And with those words, Havik pressed on a glyph on his side and Luz could feel her breath being taken away from her. "I have put so much into this operation, and I will not abandon it!"

Luz stuck out her tongue at him. "Nah, I think it's a bluff. There's no fancy pants ritual that's gonna go off…what does it even do, anyway?"

Havik laughed at her and withdrew the suffocation. Just in time too. Luz didn't think she had much longer. "You seriously don't even know what it does? Oh, very well, Luz. Far be it from me to leave you unenlightened just as you are about to die. The ritual is an exceedingly advanced oracle spell. It is implemented on a timer." Luz tuned Havik out as he monologued about his evil scheme, telling her things that she'd already known for some time. It was a very thorough monologue, it had to be said. He implicated himself in over twenty-seven murders, including Swaard's, over the course of it.

"…thereby allowing me to become so rich that Jeff Bezos will look like a hobo in comparison!" Havik finished. "But I've told you too much already!" He used a summoning glyph on his shoulder to bring a huge two-handed sword to his hands. "I'm going to utterly destroy you now, Luz, just like I killed your father. But your death is going to last considerably longer than his."

Luz closed her eyes and prayed under her breath that the plan was working. If it didn't, she was sunk. She opened her eyes. "I don't know…sounds like there's some holes in your plan to me."

Havik let out a harsh laugh. "Really? Tell me, what hole have you found in my plan, master strategist Luz Noceda?" A warm glow echoed throughout Luz. Finally, someone recognized her as a master strategist. True, it was a villain, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Well, if the Boiling Isles is hell, then how do you think Satan is going to react to the whole invasion thing?" Luz said, making her voice sound high pitched and childlike.

Havik rolled his eyes. "Your mockery notwithstanding, we both know the truth. The Boiling Isles is not hell. Odalia and I made that up to sell people on a holy war. In truth, hell is empty and all the devils are here…inside of me." Okay, that was a badass line. Luz had to give credit where credit was due. "No, the Boiling Isles does not truly pose a threat to the people of this world. Not anymore, anyway."

He advanced on Luz, holding the sword high up into the air. "Have you any last requests before I kill you, you filthy degenerate?"

Luz put her hand on her chin, pretending to think. "Well…just one. Could you give a big smile for the cameras?" she asked, and pointed to the surveillance camera in the corner of the room.


In King's opinion, baseball was the most boring sport in the history of the multiverse. It was just people hitting balls with bats and running around a field. Nothing was set on fire. Nothing exploded. Hell, even flyer derby was more entertaining than it. In the name of diplomacy and trying to honor Luz's dead father, King had tried his best to sit through it, but he'd fallen asleep midway through the fourth inning. So when he was shaken awake, he was displeased, to say the least. "Don't you know that the wrath of the King of Demons is terrible when he's woken up from his stupor?" King asked Viney grandly.

"Never mind that!" Viney snapped. "Look!" She pointed at the huge screen on one end of the stadium, which normally showed closeups of the players. But now it was showing something much different: Luz's confrontation with Havik. When Luz had told King about her plans to have Sean use his technomancy to broadcast her confrontation with Havik to the entire ballpark, and by extension, the whole world, he'd thought she was off her rocker. Surely, such an important device would be too well warded. But Luz looked like she was having the last laugh.

King looked on with pride as Luz tricked Havik into revealing the full extent of his villainous plans, including confessing to the murder of her father, the attempted overthrow of the American government with the help of Vice President Thompson, and to having faked the whole threat of the Boiling Isles. "That's my sister," he said, wiping away a tear. "Isn't she the best?" Of course, the whole thing would have gone so much quicker if King had been there – truly, the Stuffed Animal Army of Darkness was not to be messed with – but this was a nice second place effort in his opinion.

"My future sister-in-law," Emira said, sounding just as proud as King was. "Ah, this is a moment I'm gonna remember for ages with pride – assuming she survives, of course."

That definitely seemed to be in doubt as the utterly furious look on Havik's face seemed to double as he realized he'd been tricked. "What have you done?!" he snarled at Luz.

"Oh, nothing much," Luz said. "See, the thing you failed into take into account is that you're…well, I'm not gonna sugar coat it, you're a moron. Yeah, you've buffed yourself up with all those glyph tattoos, but you really don't get that unless you're supplementing yourself with palismen…which you're not gonna be able to do since you're about to be arrested…all of your organs are gonna slowly disintegrate."

Havik let out a bestial snarl. Luz didn't look bothered in the slightest. "Anyway, like I was saying, we're all on the huge jumbotron screen for the world to see! Hi, sports fans! Your friendly neighborhood Luz is here! Also, sorry, Dad, but go Mariners!" She waved at the screen. King beamed at the acknowledgment. "Uh, yeah, anyway, sorry you had to listen to that. He does go on, doesn't he?"

"LOOK OUT!" King screamed at Luz as Havik made a lunge for her with the sword, but of course his words fell on deaf ears. Luz didn't need a warning either. She just calmly stood there as the sword went straight through her with no harm whatsoever…as if it was just an illusion. Which, King realized a second later, it actually was.

"Yeah, you probably should have remembered that my friends can still do magic even wrapped up in those vines," Luz said in an almost apologetic tone.

Havik pulled out a gun from an ankle holster, and by the panicked look on Luz's face, it was definitely a real one. "If I'm going down for my many crimes, then adding your death to the list will hardly make much of a difference. And once you are dead, with your friends in my clutches, I will kill them too."

"No, I guess it wouldn't," Luz said sadly. "But are you sure you've gotten everyone in your clutches? You aren't missing anyone?" The camera panned up to the bunches of vines…including the empty one where Vee had been. Then it panned over and zoomed in towards the wall, where Vee was watching the exchange, shapeshifted to a bug. There was a snapping of fingers, presumably Luz's and the camera zoomed out just as Vee shapeshifted into xyr original form.

Vee got between Havik and Luz just an instant before Havik started pulling the trigger of the gun. All the bullets ricocheted off of xyr basilisk hide and one of them struck Havik straight through the neck. That was the last bullet in the gun, which clicked empty. He fell to the ground clutching his throat as blood flowed through it.

Luz used a glyph to release everyone, then healing glyphs to heal the injuries they sustained from falling to the ground. "It's up to you," Camila said gently. "His fate is in your hands."

"Suck his magic out, Vee," Luz ordered xyr. Vee obliged and the glyph tattoos faded from view and disappeared, leaving Havik completely powerless. Everyone aimed their weapons at Havik, who was too busy bleeding to death to do anything about it.

Luz stepped over to him and pulled out a healing glyph. "You killed my dad," Luz said. "His death didn't even mean anything to you. He was just one more obstacle in your path. There's nothing I can do to change that. The only thing I could do is end that path here and now."

Luz activated the glyph and the bullet wound healed. King scowled. This showing mercy to enemies thing was overrated, in his opinion. But this was Luz's father's killer, and she had a right to pass judgment on him as she chose. "But I'm not going to do that. There are a lot of reasons I could give you. I could say that my dad wouldn't want me to become a killer over someone as despicable as you. I could say that there's been enough blood and I'm just tired of it all."

She stomped her foot onto Havik's neck. "But the truth is that your death would just be over too quickly!" she snarled at him, a rare note of absolute hatred entering her voice, and King let out a cheer. "I want you to face justice! I want you to spend the rest of your life rotting in a cold, dark cell knowing that you came so close to victory, only to have it snatched away from you at the last minute! I want you to know that your defeat came at the hand of a kid, and that it never would have happened if you hadn't murdered my father!"

Luz stepped back, breathing heavily, and then looked directly at the screen. "I want to talk now to all of you out there. You saw who the true villain is today. I'm not going to pretend that we're all saints in the Demon Realm, but it's not hell. It's just another realm. You have a golden opportunity to transform this world in ways I don't think any of us can even conceive of! Don't squander it. I beg of you. We want peace. And we're not going to let people like Odalia and Havik stop us from getting it."

A beseeching look formed in Luz's eyes. "I know there are those of you, like Sean's parents, who think that the Demon Realm is evil, that anything outside of your experience is evil. It's so much easier for you to blame one group of people – demons, witches, Jews, LGBTQ people, whatever – for all the ills of society than to realize that sometimes, shit just happens. Your fantasy world is holding you back." Camila flinched, as if the words had resonated with her somehow. "It's holding us all back."

She staggered slightly. "And what's more…" She looked down at herself and her eyes widened in horror as she saw the bloodstain slowly growing on the lower half of her chest. King was wondering when Luz was going to notice that. "OH MY GOD, I'VE BEEN SHOT!" she shrieked. "Why did no one tell me I've been shot?!"

"I tried!" Camila said testily.

"Cut the feed!" Luz shouted. "Sean, cut the feed!"

It took a while for Sean to cut the feed. In the meantime, King witnessed the ritual being dispelled, Luz heal herself with a blood healing glyph, and human law enforcement agents storm the room and arrest Havik. King gave a round of applause when the screen went black. He couldn't have planned the whole thing any better himself. Maybe Luz was right. Maybe she was a good planner. "Well, I think the game's over," Viney observed as various fans were quickly led out of their seats.

"But there are still two more innings left!" King protested. "I haven't even had any hot dogs yet!" That statement, which should have provoked shock and horror in his minders, just made them snicker. He bet he would have had time for hot dogs if the Stuffed Animal Army of Darkness had been there. Truly, there was no justice in the multiverse.