"Morning." Scott said, meeting Amber by her locker.

"Morn-oh jeez, you look like crap." she said. His hair was disheveled, he was paler than normal, and the slight dark circles he usually had under his eyes were solid black. She frowned. "What time did you go to bed last night?" He yawned.

"Dunno. Passed out somewhere between three and four a.m. last night. Barely made it here today, thanks mom." he grumbled.

"You know that's not healthy."

"Couldn't be helped. I needed to make some calls, make some arrangements, redesign spells conceived millions of years before I was born, the usual." he said, gulping down the largest coffee the shop had. He gave a sigh of relief as it slid down his esophagus. "Ahh. Sweet, life-giving caffeine. But the good news is I have...nearly everything I need to throw a wrench into their plans."

"I hope so. If Brian and that thing's really as dangerous as you say, I really hope so." Amber said worriedly. She was absently sticking books into her bag, and started to tear it.

"Easy now." Scott gestured to it. She examined the holes and huffed.

"Damn. Wasn't even paying attention." The bell rang for class, and they went their separate ways. A couple hours passed, but Leo, Scott, Amber, Kevin, and Will were all distracted, their minds on what they’d discovered and done last night.

As the day went on, the sky grew cloudy. Not the normal light grey, but dark, ominous clouds rumbled overhead, threatening thunder. Far from the morning mist dispersing, it grew foggier out, the temperature dropping to freezing. The air hummed with extra static. Unbeknownst to the group, a dull white van pulled into the parking lot. Three figures, dressed in dark, concealing coats and hats, emerged and scanned the school. Without a word, in unison they strode forward.

"And General Custer got the table from the Appotomax Courthouse, the same one that the treaty was signed on." the teacher said, clicking to the next PowerPoint slide. Leo, bored, looked out the window, having already thoroughly reviewed the material on Sunday after Mielios's instruction. He noted the three figures absently, probably here on business. That was, until he recognized the coat and gait of the leading man. His heart panged, and he was aghast, He knew, instantly, what must have happened. There was no other explanation. He shot up out of his desk.

"Excuse me Mr. Morton, I have to go to the bathroom right now! Sorry!" He dashed out of the bewildered room, not even waiting for a response. He flew through the halls, pulling out his phone and frantically pushing a number.

Scott felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, a call, not a text. Discreetly checking the screen, he saw it was Leo. Puzzled, he pushed his notes aside and lowered his head to his desk, not an unusual position for him. He'd been catnapping all day so far.

"Hello?" he whispered, keeping an eye on the teacher. Luck was with him; she was looking away at the moment. When Leo explained, his eyes shot wide open. "WHAT!?" he erupted, standing up. "But it's too soon, we’re not ready! No, yeah, I get it, let's go!" Ignoring the teacher's admonishments, he rushed out the door.

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"Mmm, it smells so good!" Joy said, inhaling the steam from the macaroni and cheese she'd just made. Amber smiled pleasantly, checking her own over. She tried not to gag. Ever since the ghoulification, even the scent of anything fresh and not garbage turned her stomach.

"And now the best part. We can dig in!" Joy said happily, brandishing a fork. "What's the matter?" she asked at Amber's hesitation. "Not hungry?"

"Yeah. I don't know how you can eat right now. I just finished breakfast a little while ago. Want mine?" she said, offering the bowl.

"Don't mind if I-" BANG!

The door slammed open and Scott and Leo burst into the home-ec room.

"Amber! I need you!" Scott cried, and dragged her away despite her protests, leaving Joy and the teacher both blinking in confusion.

"I didn't know she had such a...passionate boyfriend." Joy said.

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Having grabbed Kevin and Will on the way, they convened in the bathroom by the cafeteria, not far from the main entrance.

"Okay, what's going on? Why're we meeting here?" Will asked, grouchy. At Amber's shrug, Leo spoke.

"I...I saw some people enter the school." he explained, peering around the corner. “I didn’t recognize the other two with him, but the one in the lead was definitely Mielios.”

“Your trainer?” Kevin asked. His lethargy slowed more than his body; his mind felt sluggish as well. Leo rolled his eyes.

“Yes, but he gave his life for us. And now he’s on the move with people I don’t recognize. That’s a little suspicious, isn’t it?”

“Where is he now?” Scott said, cursing his lack of forethought. He’d been up way too late, and he’d forgotten the pendulum. He peeked out the door as well. He’d never thought Brian would send his minions out in broad daylight! Now they were here!

The trio had entered the office, plainly visible from the plexiglass window. Mielios took the in the sights, an everyday work desk leading to the different offices of administration.

“Hello, may I help you gentlemen with something?” the plump, older secretary asked, giving them the once-over and not liking what she saw. Who were these people, and why were they dressed like the FBI? One of them turned to Mielios and tilted his head. Mielios nodded. The man closed his eyes, Mielios addressing the secretary.

“Good morning, ma’am. I’m agent Smith with the Department of Justice.” He handed her an official ID. “I hate to interrupt your busy schedule with such grim news, but I need to get ahold of one Bachelder, Kevin Bachelder. It is to our understanding that he has been witness to a very serious crime. We would like to interview him. Could you bring to the office, please?”

“Oh my, that does sound serious!” the secretary gasped. She glanced around; her coworker had taken an early lunch. “Just a moment, please.” She pulled up a microphone and flipped the switch. “Would Kevin Bachelder come to the office, Kevin Bachelder to the office. There, he should be along in a minute. “

Listening from the bathroom door, Kevin’s blood chilled as the announcement went out. His ears picked up the conversation, and he turned to the others with a worried face.

“What do I do?”

“Stay put for now. They’re trying to remove you discreetly, let’s try to avoid that.” Leo said, fingering his sword bracelet.

“Uh, guys?” Amber piped up, holding her cell phone. The screen was black. “My cell phone just cut out.”

“Weird, mine too.” Leo said, checking his. Realization hit Scott as he pulled out his, dead as the others.

“No, this isn’t a simple abduction!”

“Can I help you gentlemen with anything else? The principal will be notified as soon as she gets back.” The secretary said, leaning on the table. “A witness to a crime. How horrible. What was it, may I ask?”

“I’m afraid all information is classified at this time.” Mielios said with a disarming smile. “However, there is another way you could help us.” He nodded to his companion.

The secretary felt fingers like a steel vice clamp around her throat, and she was hoisted into the air, gasping for breath. The other man laughed madly.

“Hah! Lookit her face, it’s such a lovely red! Ooh, I could pop that tomato and lap it up!”

“You will restrain yourself. Master put me in charge, and I value discretion on a mission.” Mielios warned.

“Tch! You’re no fun.” the other man complained. The silent one still had the hapless secretary by the throat.

BAM!

The office door flew open as Kevin and Leo charged in, Kevin flying high to plant his foot in the psychotic one’s face, Leo slicing down and cutting off the arm holding the secretary. Kevin landed and vanished, snatching the woman up and tucking her away into the principal’s office. Leo raised his sword at Mielios.

“You’re a vampire now.” he stated, no emotion in hi stone. Mielios nodded.

“I have been educated in what I have been lacking since the day I hatched. I am so much more complete now. If possible, I would show you where your loyalty should lie.” he said. Leo scowled.

“I would die before that happened.” Mielios nodded.

“So be it. Sxarxas?” The silent vampire picked up his severed arm. It, and the elbow it came from, were both sparking with electricity.

“Is…is he a robot?” Leo wondered aloud.

“Something similar.” Mielios answered. Sxarxas held his limb to his stump, and Leo watched in astonishment as liquid metal ran like hot glue to fuse the two together again. Sxarxas stared at him impassively. “Kill him and his friends, but remember the necromancer is our target.”

“Not mine!” the other one exclaimed, jumping up and holding his face. “Where’s that little runt? I’ll rip him to shreds in my gullet!”

“Your goal is different, Gulm.” Mielios chastised. “Start sinking the school. We want no one to escape.” Leo’s eyes widened in horror.

“You would destroy an entire building filled with children, on your new master’s command?” he asked quietly. In his hands the sword began to vibrate, almost imperceptivity.

“With pleasure.” Mielios sighed, shivering in ecstasy. How could Leo understand? How could he know the pure joy, the sheer rightness of abandoning Zet-Mathaig for Brian? He resolved then and there to bite his former pupil, if circumstances allowed. Then he too would see what it meant to lay at Brian’s feet. But until then, they had a mission to carry out. “Gulm, drop it as soon as possible. Do it before they can get away.”

“Rrrg...right!” Gulm’s mouth widened, and widened, and widened until it was the same diameter as his shoulders, filled with serrated teeth. His body swelled and bulged grotesquely, limbs shrinking away to nothing as he revealed the form Brian had bestowed upon him, a hideous, glistening, magenta worm covered in green eyes. He screeched and dove to the ground, burrowing through the concrete like it was water.

“Sxarxas, find the others and eliminate them. But leave this one to me!” Mielios commanded. Sxarxas nodded and flexed. His skin shredded and tore off. His bizarre body resembled nothing more than a steel electrical tower, twisted into the vague shape of a man. Large sparks of electricity crackled where his head and hands should have been.

“Oh come on! How can any of you be real vampires?” Leo protested.

“They’re not.”

Claaaaannnnnnnngggggggg!

They looked over to see Kevin clinging to a wall, his hand on the fire alarm. Mielios grimaced while Kevin smirked. “Not proper ones, anyway. Either way, I won’t let you lay a finger on anyone in this school!”

“You!” Gulm burst from the floor, trying to bite at him. Kevin scampered up the wall more. “You kicked my face! No one messes with my face! I’ll devour you for your cheek!”

“Come and get me then, ugly!” Kevin grinned as students and teaches ran out the doors, trying to avoid the office. Sxarxas’s sparks made it look like it was in flames.

“Ugly? You-!” Gulm slammed into the ground, burrowing up into the wall. Kevin scurried away, flowed by a bugle in the wall.

“No, moronic imbecile! Arg. Sxarxas, find the others and eliminate them NOW!” The metal monster launched itself out of the window, and started walking up the side of the building. Mielios sighed and moved to follow, but a shining blade blocked his path.

“No. The others will be fine, I believe in them. We finish things between us now.” Leo said with finality, glaring.

“I suppose. Very well, Leo!” Mielios howled and threw off his prosthetics, exposing his mantis-like body. However, he had changed, and Leo was honestly terrified. His legs were covered in thick black hair, and he had gained an additional pair of double-clawed arms. His eyes however, were gone. In the sockets erupted a mass of writhing maggot-white tentacles, each ending in a snapping mouth. “I will be your end!” they chorused. Leo grit his teeth and sunk lower in his stance.

“Let’s go, Mielioooos!”

“Leoooooo!” The alien monster and young man charged at each other, each determined to be the victor.

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“Ooh, that ain’t good.” Scott said, watching Leo and Mielios’s exchange from the bathroom.

“C’mon, we have to help him!” Amber started forward, but Scott caught her wrist. And nearly had his own ripped off trying to halt her momentum, dragging on the ground. “Huh? What’s the matter?”

“Forget Leo right now,” he said, regaining his balance. “Didn’t you hear him? They’re here to destroy the school, probably to eliminate any witnesses. Kevin’s dealing with one, and we can’t help Leo with his.”

“So we shouldn’t even try!?” Amber cried, eyes blazing. Scott shook his head.

“No. I mean we couldn’t touch him when he took us on, and Leo’s technically the only one who comes close to winning. I hate to split the party, but it appears we’re dividing and conquering.”

“Rrg.” She stamped her foot in frustration, but she saw the logic. She glanced back. Leo and Mielios had moved out of the office, Leo parrying blows struck by the claws. “I hate this. Where’s the other one?”

“He climbed out the window, so-”

CRASH!

Amber and Scott both screamed as the wall exploded inward. The strange vampire buzzed and crackled. It brought both its hand-sparks together. Not liking where this was going, Amber grabbed Scott and jumped out of the way, a massive shot of electricity incinerating the floor where they’d been.

“Holy hell, that thing shoots lightning!” Amber exclaimed.

“Run!” They took off down the hall, the voiceless abomination in hot pursuit. It buzzed again, and Amber smelled a buildup of ozone. She forced Scott down as lightning arced overhead, the sparks on the creature now weaker, but growing brighter by the second. They rounded a corner and ducked into an empty classroom, panting hard. Sxarxas paused, swaying back and forth searching for them. It plodded down the hall, examining every window into the rooms, on the prowl for blood. They pressed up against the door, as low to the ground as they could. It glanced into their room, but left. Apparently, he didn’t see them. One heartbeat. Two. Ten. After a full minute, they let out a sigh of relief, Amber cautiously poking her head up to check. There were flashes of light around the corner. It had moved on.

“Good for now. But what do we do? That thing was made out of metal, like an erector set from Hell powered by electricity. How do we even fight that?” Amber said.

“It seems Brian’s not satisfied with his army of regular super-vampires.” Scott grunted, shaking his head. “It was like this whenever we played any game. He always had to have the coolest, flashiest, strongest characters no matter what, story or logic be damned. “I’m guessing these are his hero units, or trump cards, the shock troops to take enemy territory while the regular ones hold it.” He frowned. Brian loved attacking with the highest-stated characters, overwhelming the opposition with pure power. It seemed that habit hadn’t changed. How Scott usually managed to win was with superior strategy, trying to block and outlast Brian. Of course, that just meant Brian usually smashed his way through traps and whatever obstacles Scott placed in his way, and loved breaking his guard in fighting games. He flashed back to Brian summoning the strongest monster his deck could produce with the dumbest grin on his face whenever they played.

“Take this! The great, the ultimate, the most perfect monster there ever was! It’s completely invincible! Even IF you kill it, it just shuffles back into the deck, and then I’ll-”

“I counter it.” he had said, revealing the appropriate card from his hand.

“Damn it, you bastard!” Brian always turned an interesting shade of red whenever that happened. Scott grinned at the memory. It was time to remind him why Scott had the better win ratio.

“It’s going to come back soon. We can’t hide here forever, what are we gonna do?” Amber asked, peering out the door.

“Will you help me? I have a plan, but it’ll be hard on you, and likely not pleasant for me either. Upside is, since you’re kinda dead already, it won’t kill you.” Scott said. Amber gave him a strange look, but nodded.

“Okay…what do we do?” she asked, nervous now. Scott rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a piece of chalk.

“If he comes close, distract him. I’ll need a bit of time to complete the array. Necromancy isn’t as limited as some might think.”

Sxarxas crackled angrily as it rounded the halls, searching for its prey. The metal clanked on cement, the four rods it balanced on for feet leaving gouges where its sharp metal dug into the floor. There, movement. It burst into the room, sensing an unusual electrical aura. However, upon closer inspection, the electromagnetic signature appeared to be coming from a spider, weaving its web in the corner. Sxarxas watched impassively as the arachnid spun and threaded. Something was strange. The web appeared to be forming some kind of strange design, one for the life of it Sxarxas could not distinguish what. The web seemed to warp and shift as Sxarxas looked at it, changing depending on the angle. There was some kind of strange…sigil embedded in spider silk?

“Hey ugly!” It turned to the source of the noise, to find Amber swinging a desk as hard as she could into it. They impacted with a mighty crash, the desk splintering into pieces and Sxarxas’ metal body dented. It thrust an appendage at her, and she nimbly dodged.

‘Huh.’ she thought as she whirled through the air. ‘It’s got a needle in the arm, probably to drain blood. So that’s how it feeds.’ It brought its sparks together again, and sent another bolt of lightning her way.

“YAAAAAIIIIEEEE!” When the electricity dispersed, Amber was frozen stock-still, stretching her abdomen as far as she could to the left, blinking the spots away from her vision. She grimaced; that had been way too close, her side was singed. She sighed at what she had to do next. “C-Come on! Missed me, ha!” Sxarxas buzzed, picking up desks and hurling them at her. Great, she now had its full attention.

“Whoops! Missed!” she cried, evading them all the way to the door. “Gonna have to-ow!” It nailed her square in the face with a chair, knocking her into the wall. “O-Ow. That hurt, you bastard.” she muttered, checking her nose. “Uh-oh.” It was charging her. Amber turned and ran, the strange vampire sparking behind her, rushing as fast as she could. The corner at the end of the hall never seemed so far away.

“Scooooot!” she wailed.

“Ready!” She poured on the speed, ignoring the burning h=in her lungs as she skidded and leapt around the corner. Sxarxas pursued, only to have her reach out and grab its steel appendages. It perceived the flow of magical energy funneling into the circle it had unknowingly just stepped in.

“Now!” she cried. Scott slammed his hands down on the circle.

“Kieholnos abbzguulll nie ntomgarheth sekhnan ninm atf huglyt!” The magic circle blazed a toxic emerald green as Scott grunted, filling Amber with power. Sxarxas touched her with its sparks, the electricity surging and coursing through her body.

She screamed, her body feeling like fire was trying to tear her apart. But she grit her teeth and bore it, channeling the pain into anger, grabbing Sxarxas’s metal and ripping away. It buzzed and threw more current through her, but Amber didn’t stop, no matter the amps. The circle infused her with greater amounts of necrotic energy than never before. She was electrocuted and burned, but the dark magic healed her as she was damaged, an infinite loop that let her move freely.

“Go!” Scott shouted, sweating. He’d never channeled this much necrotic energy before; too much couldn’t be good for either of them. He groaned under the strain, but saw Amber fighting through her burden. He grit his teeth and pushed through his. Sxarxas, tired of this, decided to forgo restraint. Its sparks exploded into miniature suns as it unleashed all of its power, flooding the corridor with electric currant. Amber howled in agony as she threw herself in front of Scott. “Stop him!” Scott yelled.

“Rrrrrrrrraaaaaaggghhhhhh!” With burning, shaking hands, she grabbed the steel rods holding Sxarxas together. Amber gave a titanic twist and heave, tearing it apart. Sxarxas buzzed and crackled, but the sparks died out as she furiously tore it to pieces. When it was fully disassembled, she stood there, smoking and panting, but fully healed.

“Are-are you all right?” Scott asked, releasing the circle and shaking out his hands. That had been way to close for comfort.

“I’ll…I’ll be fine.” Amber replied, shaking her head. Smoke was wafting off her body. She took in the hallway, scorched black by lightning. “Just need a sec before we do anything like that again.” she admitted. Scott gave a snort of laughter.

“’Kay, but I hope you can recover on the run. Kevin’s got the worm guy after him, so-” There was a loud crash, followed by the entire building shaking. “-we should hurry.”