During the night of the “dance to end all dances” James Bekins unwillingly decided to take a vacation away from the Earth…call it forced retirement if you will. As for those at the dance this is what happened at about the same time James went missing

          David and Suzanne were on the dance floor, where one does not hear their own voice, the last place David ever wants to be.
David: Whoa…did you feel that?
Suzanne: What?
David: I said something doesn’t feel right!
Suzanne: The ring doesn’t seal tight?
David: *Grumbles* Follow me.

Teresa: Brr…is it chilly in here all of a sudden?
Rod: *not paying attention (as usual)* …Huh?
Teresa: I think something very bad just happened.
Rod: Yeah? Well if you’d give me back my toys I can do something about it.
Teresa: *smacks Rod* No, you still have homework.
Rod: Aww…

The two pairs leave the main dance hall and find themselves running into each other along with Tip, Katie, Theis, and Jordan. David broke the queer silence with the usual musing tone, “You think James has kissed a girl or something?” the others shook nervously, realizing it was stupid to be so paranoid but at the same time be slightly keen to a solid pulse in each of their beings. Rod stepped forward and made a brief statement, “I get his N64 and Diablo CD.” Teresa smacked Rod once more and the rest couldn’t help at least a small smirk. “It’s almost midnight, would it do any good to check on him right now?” Theis whispered as others walked by…as if this was some hush hush matter people get killed over. David’s face hardened and he finally spoke once more, “No, we all may just be being paranoid and waking him up would not be a good idea.”

Elsewhere…

“Frell…why do I always have to snoop around?!” James moaned as he felt the open wounds on his back. Apparently through the course of the dance he had figured out something no one else was supposed to know about, that is, unless you are in the right business to know. A voice came out of the dark room, hollow and lifeless, “You had to figure out what the Majin possessed, didn’t you? Foolish boy, you brought this upon yourself.” James leaned against a wall and slowly propped himself up and retorted, “Majin? Is that what you call it? Bah, too light a name for such an evil little thing to do to one’s mind.” The voice paused, apparently trying to feign a return gesture and finally came on once more, “everyone’s a critic, but all out critics never leave here alive.” James was unable to support himself any longer and crashed to the ground swearing over the situation and the fall with the simple word, “frell…”

“I can’t believe I’m worrying about Bekins when there’s so many bigger things going on right now!” Rod spoke under his breath in the cold outside. “Rod, stop being so egotistical, you knew that not pressuring him enough to come to the dance would be disastrous.” Teresa shivered as a cold wind blew up from the south, “Hey, I tried my best and he just shelled up every time I tried to talk about it.” David nodded empathetically to himself agreeing that they all had probably done as much as was expected of each of them. Theis and Jordan had chosen to run back inside and remain there till the rest choose to leave, both having dates to appease. Katie and Suzanne paused to look off at the ocean and wonder if James had just taken off for Catalina on a bodyboard or something ridiculous like that. David offered his jacket to Suzanne who refused to be any more comfortable now than she already was. Rod was getting impatient and spoke up, a bit louder than he might have intended, “Well, are we just going to stand around here, or are we going to do something about it?” Tip had enough root beer earlier to open up to any ideas and started off with one of his own, which happened to be a rather foolish and bull-headed approach, “Let’s break into his house and see if he’s there, if he’s not we can look for clues.” David frowned, “What if his parents call the police, eh? Do you think just saying we’re his friends will bail us out of that one?” Tip shrugged and was still set on going on with his plan, things like this didn’t happen everyday. Suzanne and Katie voiced to leave Theis and Jordan behind since things looked like they were going to just get uglier, the others agreed. “Let me just go tell Dusty I’m taking off,” Katie said in the process of heading back for the front door of the hall. David’s face tensed up a moment and he whispered to Suzanne, “This is getting messy, if anything happened to you I’d never be able to forgive myself, so please stay behind this one time, will you?” Suzanne grimaced and replied, “David Lou, I feel the same way if anything happened to you, so the answer is no, I’m coming with you whether you like it or not.” The two partook in glaring at each other for the next three minutes as the rest sighed and waited for the limo to get back.

“Welcome to the end of your life, this is going to hurt…a lot…ready for the pain?” a new voice announced into the dark chamber James was still being held. “I’m sick and tired of these voices without faces, be a man and show yourself, coward!” A panel in one of the corners of the room opened up and James was confronted with a blinding light accompanied by the silhouette of a fairly large human walking his way. “Do you like what you see?” the voice said as it grabbed a fairly large flail from a rack by the open panel. “I pity you, a person must have to be extraordinarily weak to have to keep me strapped down and to use such a crude weapon on a defenseless person,” James hollered as the figure continued to approach. The figure snapped and immediately lights drowned the room and James flinched in pain at the unwanted light. The figure now was directly in front of James and was smiling. “Bloody hell…not you.”

It was then that in the cold parking lot the group suddenly fell to their knees simultaneously. David couldn’t help saying, “Whoa, bit**in’!” Rod got up first and looked around for some assailant to have knocked them all down and was disappointed to find no one. Suzanne cusped her hands over her head and screamed out, “No! Oh please let it not be so!” David whirled around and screamed back, “What is it? What the heck is it??” Suzanne fell to the ground and sobbed and cried and sobbed till she had no more strength to cry any more, she did not speak during that time, the rest merely stood round her perplexed and worried. After all her crying she passed out, leaving David and the rest speechless. David turned to the rest, “What does it mean,” pausing a moment then screaming, “WHAT DOES IT MEAN????”

Elsewhere in the now well-lit room James had been unconscious and near the point of death for 5-minutes now, his attacker had now left, leaving him to bleed to death all alone. In the next room over two voices were in discussion, the one that had attacked James was now audible through the panel as his voice raised, “Just let me kill him now! I know you want him to suffer as a form of making an example out of him, but I want to end this now. You haven’t even let me fight him 1-on-1 like I wanted to, a warrior like myself pales at cheap killing jobs.” The hollow voice replied, “I want the others to come and as long as he lives they’ll still have a shroud of hope to save him.”

The congregation was now fast on the way to James’s house where they hoped and prayed to find out they were just being over-protective. Tip and David tried to ease everyone’s nerves with a joke here and there about how foolish they might be acting, but the rest really didn’t hear them, if fact they weren’t even hearing themselves make the jokes. David went silent as the house came into view and all of them slowly exited the limo. “Should we knock?” Katie asked. David left moved his head left to right over and over, unable to do anything otherwise. They broke in silently; Rod insisted to go first but David just threw him aside and barged in without any more delay. They all walked to the computer room and found the PC to be trashed; the girls winced away in pain and cried into their date’s shoulders. David collapsed after trying to maintain composure for so long and now finding his worst thoughts to have become reality. “Why…why James? What did he do? What did he ever do?” David sputtered between his tears of pain. Rod, who was more or les the least fazed by all this looked at the desk right by where the monitor…or at least what was left of it and grasped a used tissue and murmured, “Guys…I think you should here what this says.” Rod stood still as stone then and Suzanne pulled it from his frozen hands and read aloud, “No time, bank above TV, goodb…there’s a pen mark after that…oh no…no!”

“Time’s up for you, human, have any regrets?” the voice which James now knew was none other than a fictional character, or at least that’s what he thought he saw, who happened to be called Mr. Blonde. “I just wish I would be able to see your sorry face when someone figures this all out and catches you off your guard and kills you as coldly as you are killingly me.” Mr. Blonde backhanded James and he passed out once more. The other voice, which which no one ever did figure out to whom it belonged to, called out to Mr. Blonde and breathed, “Don’t you worry about his banter, he’ll be dead in a day or so the way I figure it.”

Tip opened up the safe and found what would have seemed to be a very low-grade will along with other instructions. This is what they found on the paper:

To whomever managed to get to this first,

I fear if you are reading this I must have been killed or felt that my death was already near at hand; I’m sorry that I’m not trying to soften the severity of the situation with words of reassurance or hope, I just don’t think if it came down to this that any of the words would be appropriate at the time. This is most of the basics I’d like covered;

1. Please tell my closest friends, Jessica Schluentz, David Lou, Niles Ruben, and Bret Theis not to mourn for my departure, but to use my life as an example and not to be afraid to step outside of their comfort zones, to oppose that which they feel isn’t right. Let them also know that I respected each of them with the most sincerity, though I never told them that enough. 2. Let my family know that I loved them and that one day they will understand that I wouldn’t want them to remain in pain for the rest of their lives, but to cherish the good times. 3. I want an Irish Wake, and considering that if I didn’t modify this letter I’ll have kicked the bucket before Jen, make sure to tell her that for once in my life I beat her at something…getting an Irish Wake before she did. Make sure to have plenty of Dad’s Root Beer there too. 4. If any girls let any of you know anytime here on out that they actually loved me and never had the chance to tell me…hah, I can’t help but mention I’m laughing while writing this part…whoever it is tell them that I wish only that they’ll get over me, since there’s not much use waiting for someone who won’t be coming back. 5. As for my possessions, you bums get nothing, absolutely nothing, I leave it to my family to do with it as they like, though I suggest they give most of the stuff to good will, other kids can use it. Oh, well David, I want you to have my Green controller as a memento if you’ll have it.

May God be with all of you and may your lives be safe.

“That’s all there is on here,” Tip said after a pause to flip the paper over and seeing if there was some hidden writing if held under a bright light. The others shivered and wept as Rod tried to figure out what the last second or two must have been like before James was taken. He found something on the mouse pad, some marking done by a pen it seemed. The Marking looked like this:

“It’s a fancy M…but what does that mean?” Rod asked himself, yet loud enough as if to poll the group. “Maybe Niles knows…”

After a short while the caravan of friends made it to Niles. “What’s up?” asked Niles. “We’re looking for James,” one in the group said. Rube expressed that the last of James he’d seen was just getting ice cream after bowling.

Elsewhere…the time now being around 1:30 in the morning, trouble was brewing. Apparently James’ efforts were not enough for him to stop the Majin from taking it’s first host. The victim tried to resist at first but the darkness was too deeply rooted, there was too much pain and hatred in the pour soul’s heart that their downfall was assured. The victim screamed out in a terrible rage and after a minute of continual screams of agony, collapsed to the ground…almost lifeless, just barely alive…it was done.

James was surprisingly still alive due to Mr. Blonde and the other’s sick enjoyment in seeing him suffer. The unknown voice spoke to James affectionately in a raspy tone, “We like you very much, James Bekins. We like you so much we choose not to give you corporeal punishment or capital punishment…no such things are too petty and simple for someone as special as you are; this is why we picked something between the two.” James lay there and inched his head and his upper torso up to them is protest and blatant disgust and proceeded to start laughing uncontrollably, then stopped suddenly to collapse back onto the table and yelled, “Do you know who I am?? I am the Great Destroyer!” The raspy voice chimed in, “Great Destroyer? Hrm, let’s see how great you are when you’re screaming!” James smiled and said, “My mommy told me that real men don't scream... “Just you wait! The Keeper of Death will ride again!! But RIGHT NOW...I need some sleep.” With that, James passed out once more.

After a good hour of motionless the body reanimated of the now possessed human being controlled by the Majin. She moved her hands experimentally and a smile broke across her face and she said in the darkness, “The night will be mine, I will kill all those that said what I could and could not do, those who pushed me over the edge…I will be victorious!” The now-mobile young woman headed to the kitchen and found a large cutting knife, shaped like a Scimitar and held it against the moon light and she said once more, “Victory…”

The group found themselves at a loss for what to do next, Teresa had left for home a good 30 minutes earlier. Niles related to the rest Majin was just some villain on DBZ. The sun was starting to show on the horizon and as the group watched it in a trance-like gaze, a car pulled up and out of it came Theis, Chris and Krysti. “We got the messages you left, Suzanne, we tried to get here as fast as possible. Any word from Bekins?” Bret asked. “No, nothing…absolutely nothing,” David said in a scratchy voice. It was just then that another vehicle pulled up briskly and parked. Rod was the first to see her and spoke gruffly, “Why, isn’t that T-” before Rod could finish his question Krysti screamed, “get down, she’s got a knife!” “Great,” David thought to himself as he was thrust to the ground.

James was now left alone, not even tied down by any conventional methods; rope would be too nice for him. Attached to his legs, arms, neck, and back were fairly strong magnets, which clung to the metal table he remained on. As the Raspy One left with Mr. Blonde he casually said, “We’re leaving now to watch those you care about destroy one another. If you can muster the strength to pull away from that table, we’re leaving you a key out of here on the floor…what? Not so easy? Tough.” James attempted to lurch forward and the magnets threw him back onto the table. James’ eyes cringed and he yelled, “I have the power!” The Raspy One laughed and said, “Power? You are nothing but a weak loser!” James winced in pain but smiled and whispered, “If everything has gone crazy, then I'll believe in myself and keep fighting. Nobody is strong. All of humanity is weak. And that includes us as well…The emotions of those who were thought to be beautiful are always full of sorrow, and honored tradition always disappears in the cry of the weak. Winners of the battle will eventually decline in power and become losers and then those 'losers' will cultivate a new hope in this world that you are so determined to corrupt.”

Rod finished now before he was interrupted, “…Tora Yuy.” David swore under his tongue and finished, “Also known as Jennifer Rickards…ahh hell this is bad.” Jennifer lunged towards the group with uncanny strength, grabbing Rod and tossing him onto the hood of the limo. David, Suzanne, and Katie chimed together, “SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII*.” Rod didn’t look like he was going anywhere for a while so Rube jumped in bravely and attempted to restrain Jennifer…no such luck. She turned on him as well, flipping the knife over and smacking him with the blunt wooden part of the knife, knocking him back a few paces. Theis and Chris looked at each other, “Okay, I guess we need to do something,” Chris whispered. “We’re not going to be any good if we’re all dead! Get Rod and Rube…get to the limos! To LCC!!!”

As the fray was going on the Raspy One soon captured another victim. This prey was even simpler to ensnare than the last. This new-possessed victim had been mocked many a day about her features and so the possession was easy. There was much anger and desire to use upon her and as the rest had fled for LCC this new killer had awaken and craved revenge. The girl got in her car and instinctively knew where the rest were heading; she too headed for LCC…with a baseball bat. James clenched his teeth as the simple Majin-possessed counter above his head changed to two. “Darnit, I have to get out of here! I'll keep on fighting alone until the day I die!” James screamed in the empty room as he once more passed out in a feverish rage.

The group floored it to LCC and incidentally collided into Richard at the stoplight. Richard came out of his car in a feverish rage, “Why the hell were you going 90 by a school zone, come here, you idiots, I’m going to beat on you with my heavy Calculus book!!” Suzanne was the first out from the collision and whimpered, “Richard?” Richard winced and replied, “Suzanne, I expected better from you, if I’d known it was you driving I’d have slammed my car into a light post, it’d have been far safer for me.” David hobbled out and collapsed on the ground, “now isn’t the time Richard. We have to seek shelter.” Luckily everyone was fine and Niles had come to, murmuring, “James, I told you to stop taking turns fast, I knew this was going to happen…AHHH my head!” Krysti poked him and said, “Look, he’s alive.” Niles moaned, “Thanks for the big concern.” Suddenly a great storm in the skies above formed and thunder and lighting filled the horizon. Something overcame Krysti and she passed out most likely from the lack of sleep and extreme stress they were all facing presently. Dan complained, “I wish I could pass out like that, it’d make these situations easier.” David got up and looked at the incoming car, “Okay, this is a time for strategy, not blind heroics. Richard, I can’t believe I’m saying this but I want you to take the girls into Stagecoach Park and protect them. Krysti should be fine here in the limo. The boys and I are going to stick to the plan and continue into LCC, do what you can to stay safe.” Niles was still too woozy to realize he was leaving Krysti behind and follwed David’s lead. Suzanne cried out, “David, that is blind heroics!” It was too late though, the boys were running into the school lot as soon as David finished speaking, Rod over Rube’s shoulders. “We’re going to regret having down this,” Katie growled in a low voice.

James held still for some time and looked directly at the counter and muttered over and over, “Two…there’s two of them now, as if one wasn’t enough…” In a rage that had never been released or seen by any before, James screamed in agony as he pushed himself from the chair, grasping his freedom by his own will, James collapsed on the cold metal floor. Between gasps of breath he said smiling, “Hah, I told you I’d return and now I will.” James looked around the room and found the key right where they left it. “It’s time I make my exit…now where the frell am I really?”

David clenched his teeth as he looked back, “Arg, I’m not supposed to look back, she’s right behind us, aww hell, we’re all gonna die.” Rube scowled, “At least you aren’t carrying Rod.” David smiled wryly and responded, “He’ll sure be pissed when he finds out we abandoned Katie, Suzanne, and Krysti. I think he’ll be glad to partake in the fighting though…if he ever comes to.” At that instant Rod snapped back to consciousness and yelled out, “Fight? Where? I want some!” Rube gladly set him down and they tore into the front of the school. “Man, this feels way too much like being chased by a ring wraith!” David whined. As the young men passed by the construction site, Rod caught a glimpse of something useful in the construction area. “Aha!” he cried out, “Rebar!” “Sure, Rod,” David said simply. Tip, being quite speechless since arriving at Rube’s house finally was able to speak once more and yelled out, “Vote Dan Tipton for Commissioner of Peace, ‘cause right now I’m defending it!” The others looked at him and laughed as they ran, how childish they all thought; at the same time they thought of how they all were most likely going to die that very day, rainy day. Chris pointed to the theater, “Let’s get inside, maybe we can lose her or find a weakness she has…or something, she is in choir you know!” Theis agreed and added, “Maybe we can bring her back to her old self?” David shivered and commented, “pray you’re right, or we’ll never see the sun ever again.”

“Okay, I’m free and out of the cell…now what?” James continually thought to himself. He stumbled around the perimeter of the base looking for a means of escape with no avail. Suddenly James tripped over a solid object in the dark and grasped some form of a switch on the way down as he tried to break his fall. The walls lifted up and James found himself staring into the depths of space and peering at the earth as it shined from below. “Great, just great…I should have known this wasn’t going to be easy.”

Richard and the girls hopped the fence at stagecoach and were hiding in the shrubbery at this time and Richard was still rather hot and bothered by the whole accident still. “Why would you be going so fast? If Jen is super-humanly strong, what good will driving as fast as possible do if she can track you?” Richard said in a grunt. All of a sudden they heard a rustle of leaves from whence they had jumped from the park into the bushes. Suzanne let her guard down and yelled out, “David?” Katie attempted to muffle her yelling but it was too late, the newest predator had set the bait and was about to earn a few more heads on the trophy wall. The group all lied down on the ground as low as they could get, all of them shivering. A voice came from above, quite a familiar one and it said, “This is for all the short jokes!” Richard cringed and whispered to the others, “Aww crap, not Ai; we’re screwed.”

Rod leapt into the band room and motioned the others to set the stands in front of the door to buy them all some time. Theis, Chris, and David shook there heads at how pointless this was but helped nonetheless. A moment later Jennifer thrust the doors open and tore through the stands like tissue paper. Tip and Rube winced and both said out loud, “This is not good…no, not good at all.” Rod held firm to his rebar and yelled out to this day what would have been the bravest (and most moronic) thing he’d ever said, “You guys get out of here, I’ll try and slow her down, better that I die than all of us die, right?” David smiled at the comment and persuaded the others to retreat; Rube being still too groggy consented. “Stay alive Rod, if you can,” David said with a grim laugh. “I’ll do my best, you know that,” Rod said as Jennifer eyed his makeshift weapon, “Now get out of here!” The others burst out the back door and Rod shifted into his standard fighting pose as he spat on the carpet he called out, “One of us will leave this room alive, but only one.” Jennifer’s eyes blazed and she spoke in a whisper, “You’re right, and that one will be me.”

James had an annoyed look on his face, “Come on now, where’s the back-up ship, the escape pods…the replicator at least?” Suddenly a door open from behind and James leapt out of sight. There was a whirring sound proceeded by the sound of the metal door shutting; James popped his head up to find a small archaic looking robot. The robot whirred over to James’ position and blurted out, “Oh please, I knew you were there the whole time and this isn’t Star Trek, there are no replicators.” James, feeling rather embarrassed at the hiding job rose up and gruffly commented, “So you’re going to take me back and lock me up in that room, right?” The robot’s interior made a sort of whizzing noise and after a long pause commented, “Is that sarcasm? No, my dear boy, I’m not going to lock you up, I’m going to get you out of here. You’re giving me a headache, all this jumping around and sarcasm.” James’ eye twitched and he responded, “You sound like a robot I read about in a sci-fi book, they called him Marvin.” The robot pinged at the sound “Marvin.” “Where did you expect Douglas Adams got the idea? Drugs? Never, we’re actually mass-produced. I believe I heard on the space-net that one of the models crash landed into his pool and was very upset about being wet,” the robot explained, “Follow me now and I’ll get you out of my positronic hair.”

Rod paced backwards carefully back to the stage door, evading music stands, with Jennifer keeping a close but respective distance. Rod flung the door open and hit the lights on. In that split second Rod let his guard down to use a hand to turn the lights on, Jennifer saw the opportunity to attack and bum rushed Rod, knocking him into the dimly lit room between the band room and the stage. Jen pursed her lips and commented, “You just sort of left yourself defensively, it just seemed to scream attack, so I did.” David and the others meanwhile had broken into the sound room to cheer Rod on. Theis by chance had his CD case in his pants pocket and realized it was there after leaning against the wall to catch his breath. “Rube, you know how they work this booth?” Theis asked, “I think we can help Rod.” Niles looked hard at the controls a moment and remarked, “Sure, I’ve watched them do it countless times.” Theis flashed a CD causing David and Tip to smile. “Oh geez, not that.”

The Two where in low orbit of earth now and viewed the battle, “Aha! The one they call Rod could be potential, he sure has more fight in him than all the others,” the Raspy One said while a smile, “We’ll let Jennifer wear him down, then we strike.” Mr. Blonde crossed his arms and nodded solemnly. “Just so long as I get to fight soon.”

James boarded the vessel Marvin had indicated and was being given the crash course of how to fly a spaceship. “Flying a UFO for Dummies? Now how in the heck did the writers know how to do that?” James said weakly. Marvin popped twice and replied simply, “You idiot, that series is across the galaxy. You earthlings just happened to be smart enough to use it as well.” James was defeated and uttered, “Oh.” Marvin was finishing the launch coding and pointed to a compartment above the passenger seat, “Whatever you do, DO NOT open that compartment! If anything falls out of it by accident, DO NOT touch it.” James was becoming impatient, “Okay okay, I won’t touch or open it, now send me home!” Marvin growled and left the ship mumbling, “Dirty humans, they’re all the same.”

Katie scowled at Richard over the poor hiding choice as they ran, adding on, “You know running to find a better spot than the last spot, which, mind you was just as good as the other one, made us easy to find just by hearing us heaving for air when we got there.” Richard got horribly defensive and would have made a droll comment, had he not been so out of breath. Suzanne was running, but as she ran her mind slowed down and she spoke aloud in a daze, “They better be okay, darnit, they better be okay.” Katie tried her best to keep Suzanne up to speed but all efforts were proving useless. Since Ai had fallen to Majin’s grasp, the short legs were no longer a hindrance as she flew over the brush with break-neck speed. “We might have to stop running and try to defend ourselves,” Katie suggested, “It’s obvious running is just going to wear us down more, making us easier to defeat.” Richard and the others new this was true but Katie spoke out for all of them in saying, “Right but remember what happened to Rod and Niles?” Richard glared down at the ground; they were running out of brush for cover.

Rod gained a second wind once the theater boomed with “The Bridge of Khazad Dum” and a smile broke across his face. Jennifer showed no signs of wear or tear; she just would step slowly towards Rod and smile that usual smile. “Now I know why James had a thing for you in the past, you have a look in your eyes that could kill a yak from 200 yards away, now where’s Katie and Sue to laugh about that?” Rod grimaced and took a swing at Jen with the rebar; she dodged to the left just as he swung. Again he tried and she dodged once more. “He’s done, isn’t he?” Tip asked in a quiet tone. David squirmed in his seat, “Yeah, no, I don’t know, ask me again in 5 minutes.” Rod faked a side attack and switched to a downward thrust. Jennifer’s hand moved like a DSL connection and grabbed the rebar, holding it firm, unfazed. Rod, (who now knew he was in trouble) let go of the rebar and rolled into the isle of seats below as she took a swing at him. This time Jennifer took a swing at Rod and as he grabbed the rebar, his hand throbbing with pain, he let out an earth-shaking yell. Niles smiled and remarked, “I taught him well.” “To fight?” Theis questioned timidly. “No, to yell, duh.” Rod held firm and Jennifer held firm; Rod glared at Jennifer and Jennifer stared him down with an expressionless face. It was then that something moved within Rod’s heart, something different than his usual craving of the fight. Rod’s complexion changed to a look of cool calmness as he swiftly released the rebar and stated, “I will no longer fight you, you obviously have me beaten; never before have I fought someone as powerful as you.” Jennifer’s gaze lost its hold and she winced, “What? You mean to say you’re giving up? Why? I thought you’d rather die fighting than to just give up!” Rod moved slowly towards her and didn’t break eye contact and spoke, “We don’t have to keep fighting, at least not each other, deep down you know this is wrong, you’re fighting the wrong person!” Jennifer released the rebar and fell to her knees, “No! Lies! Ahh! The voices…all these voices in my head telling me to destroy you and the rest! These aren’t my thoughts! Get out! Get out of my head!”

It was right at this time that The Raspy One lost his overbearing confidence and screamed out, “No! This isn’t supposed to be happening, that rotten girl must have had a very willful mind, I think she’s going back to her old state; no matter how hard I try now she’s switching back arrr!” Mr. Blonde’s eyes narrowed and he uttered, “The time is now to divert the powers and attention on the girl, send them to another, he will prove most useful once reenergized by your magic.” The Raspy One nodded in a delusional state and replied, “You’re right, it’s time.”

The ship hummed to life and James sat back in the pilot’s seat. The engine purred to life with a crack-whip sound as the turbo drive snapped on, releasing huge vapor trails from behind the ship. James looked over at Marvin, who glumly looked at the little flesh-trash getting away from him so he could go back to watching John Candy films and solve crossword puzzles (both which he despised doing but it passed the time) in the wreck room. James’ ego kicked in and he figured this must look pretty cool, launching off in a spaceship. So, he kicked his feet up, stretched out, found a pair of sunglasses and waited to be home. The ship suddenly ignited the back burners and James went tumbling to the back of the cockpit. “Ugh, stupid ego,” James said as he cursed under his tongue. As he stumbled back to the seat with the enhanced gravity he slipped just as he was a good foot from the seat and flung his hands in the air and by the dumbest luck his hand graced the compartment Marvin specifically said not to touch. The compartment flew open and with it dropping a clear sphere, which was sent (with James) hurtling to the back. James hit hard against the wall and a second later he put his hands up to deflect the ball and as his hand touched it, the ball and James left the ship in a blinding light. The last thing from James before he disappeared was, “Aww crap.”

Jen got to her feet and staggered back a few paces, letting loose an ear-piercing scream of pain. Rod rushed to her as she once more collapsed, catching her in mid-fall. “It’s okay, the nightmare is over now.” Jennifer smiled wanly and closed her eyes in peace. “It’s over…we’ve won,” Rod spoke out to the others. It was then that the Raspy One took advantage of the situation. Niles screamed out from the back, “No!!!!!!!” David, Theis, and Dan switched their attention to Niles. “What’s wrong? Oh no…” David said breathlessly. Dan saw what really was happening, “No, it’s not Niles that’s turning on us, look!” Rod’s arms loosened slowly and Jennifer slowly fell to the ground; a moment later Rod shot his hands up into the air and released a hollow yell towards the roof of the theater. Theis didn’t hesitate and ran for the stage screaming, “Rod! Fight it! You’re stronger than that! You can resist!” Rod’s eyes were wide with pain and he bolted out the back door of the stage, still screaming in agony. David, Niles, and Dan looked at each other, groaned and followed after Bret and Rod. Rod had collapsed on the asphalt and Theis was trying to revive him. It was then that Rod snapped back to life and in a rage launched Bret into the large outdoor theater wall. As the rest headed for outside, Niles stopped to talk to Jennifer, “You picked a bad time to nap, come on, we gotta get out of here.” “Oh lay off it, my head feels like it’s ripping in two, I’ll be out soon enough,” responded Jen. Bret staggered back up, “Okay, Rod, it’s go time, I’m going to knock you out.” Dan and David shook their heads and Dan yelled to Theis, “He must have hit you too hard, Bret, you don’t stand a chance!” Bret hobbled around clumsily and then managed to hold still a second and form an amateur-fighting pose. Rod’s eyes glowed a low blue and he waved Bret on to have a free shot. Bret winced and took a shot, knocking Rod square in the lip/jaw region. Rod’s mouth began to bleed and he smiled as he wiped it away and spat, “I don’t even feel it.” Bret winced and signaled Niles to throw him the rebar from the theater; Niles ran back in, grabbed the rebar and tossed it, “Catch…I hope this helps.” Bret took a swift swing and connected with Rod’s left leg. Rod went down from the blow and as he tried to get up again, it seemed that his leg was dislocated, possibly the knee bone had popped out of place. Theis smiled confidently and remarked, “See, he is still mortal.” Rod looked confused a moment and then proceeded to pop it right back into place. In horror David cried out, “He just goes and puts a broken bone together...Man! That just totally grosses me out just thinkin' about it!”

James hissed in pain as he found himself back on the ship…but surrounded by a couple hundred little fat…things. At first he reacted with, “Wow, I must be dreaming, why would I be in a spaceship, right? Oh wait…crap.” It was then that James felt like a cat in a foreign neighborhood and being surrounded by little boys with queer smiles on their faces. James glared and spoke up, “What the frell are you things?” One of the fattest of the fat…things replied, “We are the Zil-Zang-Ze, we came from the oracle sphere!” James rubbed his head, “Oh yeah…the ball…great…can you go away now? I have a headache.” This fattest Zil-Zang-Ze folded its fat arms and huffed, "Why did we rescue this guy in the first place? He's anti-social, thinks he's Evil Knivel, and hardly speaks anything nice; you've got such a gloomy personality, why don't you stop pretending to be human." James shook his head in annoyance with narrowed eyes and remarked, “I need an aspirin.”

Richard and the girls took a wrong turn at one of the bushes and found they’d run right into Ai. Katie scowled, “Richard we’re trying to evade her, not crash into her!” Richard raised his hand to start in protest and found his voice had been silenced…Ai had struck and the first fatality had occurred, Richard’s glasses. Richard’s face turned bright red and he hollered out, “That’s it, now I’m mad!” Ai smiled in a suttle way and knocked the others away from Richard. In Richard’s last thoughts were, “David…this is all your fault.” Ai took a swift swing with the baseball bat and in one swift blow, which broke the bat, sustained fatal damage to Richard’s skull, be it as thick as any thought, and wasn’t enough to keep him alive. Naturally, the girls screamed and ran. Richard’s last words were, “Well at least I didn’t have to do that Calculus Test today.”

David and Niles looked on as Rod took more offensive from Bret and critiqued how irrelevant cheering would be at this time; Jen, on the other hand, decided it was appropriate and cheered on Rod in her still woozy daze. Niles and Tip shook their heads and informed her she was rooting for the wrong person and she got defensive and remarked flatly, “I’m rooting for who’ll win.” The last thing Bret was focused on right now was the small argument happening behind him as he continually ran in for the attack. At some point Rod had invited Theis to take a free shot and Bret decided to do so.

Note a lot of time has passed so I’m updating it now…consider this now in the time period of May-range.

Everyone still alive: “What just happened?”
James: “I took too long to write this.”
Everyone: “No, really?”
James: “Shut up, I had to do this.”
Everyone: “Fine, write some more then!”
James: “I’M GETTING TO IT *cough* give me time”

With Richard gone the girls scattered frantically…though dazed from first being in dance dresses to normal attire. Suzanne made a good effort to get back to the limo, which for reasons unknown to 98% of the population stayed this painfully long amount of time at Niles’ home. Yet, Ai was waiting for someone to try this move and Ai had intercepted Suzanne…with her cow-herding SUV. Suzanne was knocked back with a large contusion to her head and passed out just before Ai came to deliver the final blow. Katie, somewhat in shock from the whole matter, screamed much louder than ever before and jumped Ai when she came back out of the truck. “This is for killing my GM and my friend! You’re not supposed to kill GM’s, who else can tell the stories now?”

James was currently being prodded by the Zil-Zang-Ze for answers about earth’s total volume and why in the world we were doing such a horrid job at protecting it from greater evils, such as Carrot Top and Britney Spears. “Ugh, I don’t know, people on my planet can be very stupid.” The Fat Zil-Zang-Ze, which James had now decided to call ‘Fat Zil’ no matter how much protest arose, commented, “You also have a problem with publishing horrible films, such as Deep Impact and Mission to Mars, do your people have no taste?” James commented gruffly, “Nope.” Fat Zil winced, “Oh…I apologize that you have to put up with that,” he said after a momentary pause to furrow his brow, if that’s what you’d call the thing above his eyes. All the small creatures motioned for a meeting and went to the back of the ship and discussed the situation briefly. After a minute or so they returned to the front of the ship and announced, “James, you are royally doomed, though the good news is you are heading for earth and your friends need all the help they can get.” In the back of the group one of the creatures whispered to another, “do you think he’ll actually be of any help though?” “Hey, shut up, I heard that!” James rasped while still nursing his wound, “I have a plan, I just hope it works.”

Katie’s leap of courage and freakish anger took Ai by surprise and by a stroke of luck for the side of good; Katie happened to grab a large branch from the nearby area and felled Ai with one savage blow to the head. After all the OM competitions, she had managed to learn how to tie some very strong knots and proceeded to tie Ai up and get out of the park and back to the guys, fearing what might have already happened. As she headed towards the school, she ran past Suzanne and throbbed with pain as she went past but said to herself aloud, “I mustn’t think about it, I have to help the others, there’s nothing I can do for her…but no, why? Why did she have to die?”