Smoke softly filtered along the ground and through the various rooms of the Prison 8 ruins. At random places, a zombie arm would crawl, or an eye would blink. Discarded pieces of disposed beings all that remain of a once great army.

And from within this place, come screams.

“Please no. You cannot. I shall serve, as I did before,” Liche, kneeling on the floor, begs from the new mistress of the Necron Stone.

“No,” Mannequinn replies. Her eyes are solid blood red, but other than that, there is no change in her appearance. “You do not understand. I need no servants. The shackles were on me too long.”

“Then why do you wish to hurt me?” Liche cowers.

“For you have something I need.” Mannequinn points at her and speaks again, the voice of Morbius coming from her “For I have given you something great and terrible. A seed of my power, to allow you to root out my enemies and be an extension of my being.” The necromancer’s voice stops, and Mannequinn’s begins again. “Time to reap what was sown.”

A long wooden staff appeared in the patchwork woman’s hand. From its end sprouted a long curved blade. A Grim Scythe.

More screams erupted from the building as smoke billowed out.

“So we know Morbius is still up to know good, right?” Eirik asks.

Ryan gets a mental flash of Prison 8 and a gleaming scythe, but it passes away quickly. “Yes. But it seems to involve him wanting to get a bigger strong hold on the PC campus. Maybe he wants to collect more spirits.”

“Would make sense,” Lucy replies.

“Ways to defeat the Necrom Stone?” Ben asks.

“Book doesn’t say,” Ryan answers.

“Personally, I think I am a little more worried about the Porter Demons!” Eirik butts in. “Granted Morbius is a threat, but we don’t really know what he is doing. We KNOW the Porter’s have some massively bad times weapon that they keep targeting at us. And if it can lock Matron’s powers, and do all the things we saw Belle do last week, then we’re in trouble.”

“So what is our strategy?” Ryan asks. Lucy opens her mouth and Ryan shushes her with a hand gesture. “I know you don’t want to Lucy, but we all have to do something. Think of it this way: this is your last mission before you move back to Boston, right?”

Lucy’s shoulders slump forward. “Right.” But her tone didn’t seem one of annoyance at having to go on another SlugGang mission.

“We need to know what their weapon is,” Ben announces. “Clarifying that, researching that, will give us the best idea of how to go about removing it from them.”

“And there are two people we have access to that can answer that,” Ryan replied.

“Who?” Randi asks, piping in for the first time.

“Myself, though it is still locked away in my head,” Ryan answers, rapping his knuckles on his temple. “And Matron.”

“Then I guess tomorrow we’re off to Beard Cell Block,” Eirik announces.

“Ever get the feeling that we’re not the biggest threat around?” Alton asks Tessa. The two demons are leaning against the kitchen counters

“Every day for the last three years…” she replies, scratching herself.

“Tessa! Alton!” Belle roared. She appeared in the room in a purple fury of light. Her feathers were blowing in a non-existent wind. “Where is Graham?”

“In his room,” Alton replied.

“Still sulking? Well get him out here.”

“What? Why!” Alton groaned.

“We shall soon be having visitors,” she turned around and exited the kitchen.

Scythe in hand, Mannequinn walked clear up to the construction fence outside of the Cowell Rehabilitation Blocks. The blade swung through, slicing a sizeable hole in the fence. Instead of having cuts in the metal where the blade had connected, there was melted, deformed metal.

She steps through the fence, and begins to proceed towards the backside of Beard Cell Block. Her eyes do not waver from the cell on the second floor, second from the stairwell. There are no shapes visible in the room. Understandable, since it is still daytime. As she approaches, the necron stone glows and clouds begin to flow in.

“You still believe I should tell you what weapon we have?” Matron asks, hovering on her side above the cot. “And what possesses you to think I should do that?”

“You owe us, we gave you back your powers,” Eirik replies. He, Ryan, and Adam are alone with her in the cell, arms crossed, watching.

“You forget I am a Reborn Demon and was once on of the most feared serial killers on the west coast. I paid you back by taking care of your supped up ghost friend last week. I owe you nothing!”

“We’re right back where we started!” Eirik yells, throwing his hands up in the air. Matron’s mask twists in a smile. Eirik’s head suddenly drops low. One hand presses against his forehead in pain.

“What is it Eirik?” Ryan asks, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Demon?”

“NO! Something worse. I can’t put my finger on it… But it’s outside of the building.”

Ryan opened his eyes wide and shot his vision outside. He scanned around the construction site, but found nothing. His vision spun around and shot back towards the building. There on the wall, just below them, was Mannequinn, climbing up the ivy, scythe in hand.

“It’s Mannequinn. But why is she setting off your sensor?” Ryan asked.

At the name of the corpsegollum, Eirik’s sensor refines itself, giving him information on Mannequinn’s location, and power level. “No way… How could she have gotten so powerful in such a short time?”

“Around her neck… it’s the necron stone?” Ryan says, confused.

Adam and Matron look at each other. Unable to see anything outside the room, they are almost allies here.

“Why does she have that?” Eirik asks.

“I don’t know. But that explains the power source. It’s like a feedback loop. Her wearing the stone that also supplies her power allows her to control her own power in ways Morbius never would be able to!”

“She’s heading towards the cell next door…. Red Lady!” Eirik exclaims. He and Ryan take off out the door, rushing through the hall. Ryan shoots out his hand, unlocking the next cell. They head inside.

Within the cell, the vampire is huddled up in the corner to avoid the sunlight.

“What do you want?” she hissed at them.

“Mannequinn is coming, wearing the Necron Stone.” Eirik repeats to her.

“What? Now I know you’re lying. Morbius would never let anyone touch the stone, let alone where it.”

Shadows covered the floor of the cell. A stitched up face pokes its head into the window. “Knock Knock.”

Lady Moore leaps up against the wall, eyes wide in shock. In her chest, her heart thumps violently under the presence of the stone.

A slash forms across the cement wall of the cellblock. The cut begins to dissolve the wall, creating a gash big enough for Mannequinn to squeeze through.

“Why are you wearing the Necron Stone?” Lady Moore screams.

“Oh, because I know better how to use it than that fool Morbius ever did.”

“Too bad that stone wont shield you from this,” Eirik said. He pressed a button on his Switch Brace, and his arm transformed into its cannon form. The weapon charged.

“You think you can kill me? I’m already dead, it wouldn’t do much more than slow me down,” Mannequinn laughed.

“But I might be able to do more,” Matron announced. In her hand appeared her staff. She threw it at Mannequinn. Before it reached the Necron Stone wearer, it transformed into smoke to pass into her. Her body began to glow with mystical runes. “Within thee, feel the agony, feel the pain, the loss of life, the rape of humanity, within thee.”

Mannequinn gave out a tiny scream as simultaneously she felt all the death pains of each person her body was comprised of. She fell onto her hands on the floor, dropping the scythe.

“You shouldn’t have done that. I may have strings, but I am no doll.” One of her hands fingered one of the stitches on her other wrist. She withdrew a thread. “You are!” She lunged at Matron, and plunged the string into her. “Now you are my marionette. Sleep!” Matron’s eyes extinguished and her head slumped over.

“Matron, wake up!” Adam yelled at the sleeping shade.

“Goodbye,” Mannequinn said as she turned back to the crack.

“You’re not leaving!” Eirik yelled, raising his charged cannon.

“No, but you are. Ryan, banish him.”

Ryan’s hand was in the air before he realized it. The muscles in his arm burned as he raised his palm and released a wave of energy. Eirik screamed and rippled out of the room. “EIRIK!” Ryan yelled. He turned back to Mannequinn, but found she was gone.

From his pocket, Ryan drew his dagger and cut a slash. Once torn, he extended his vision through the crack to their home world.

Eirik was laying on the other side of the world, in a square shaped single room. No one else was in the room. Ryan cut a large archway into the room. He stepped through and pulled Eirik back in.

“Ok, so maybe we need to reprioritize Mannequinn on the higherarchy of evil,” Eirik announces, rubbing his head.

“Not higher than me though,” Belle announces. She swoops into the room.

“Ah shit, what now!” Ryan groans.

“Just a friendly hello to let you know, you’re all screwed. Yes, even you Matron.”

“How kind,” the witch replied.

“And to prove I’m not kidding…” she began to flicker, revealing she was merely a projection. Once the image of Belle was gone, a small black and purple ball was left.

“RUN!” Matron screamed, eyes flaring up. But before they could, the ball of light exploded, filling the room with brilliant, terrible, psynuclear energy.

When the light cleared, the cell was empty save for an unconscious Adam.

Down below the building, Mannequinn smiles to herself, as the explosion clears. “This must be what Morbius was so keen on. Wasn’t it, master?” She grabs the stone in her hand. A tiny voice, almost like Morbius’ cries out, but is barely heard. She turns and leaves.

“So Kira… are you going home this summer?” Greg asks as he laces up his shoes.

“No, silly. You know that. It’s not like I even have a home to go to as I sure am heck am not going back to my Uncle’s.”

“Oh right, sorry…”

“It’s ok,” she smiles down at him. She is standing in the doorway to his room. “But I’m going to be staying here in town this summer, I found a really nice little place to sublet.”

“That’s good…” Greg responds, still not looking at her.

“You’re going back to Marin, right?” Kira waits for him to murmur a yes. “But you will come down to visit still, right?”

He looks up at her. “Of course.”

“Cause I’ll be here all by myself all summer… Terribly lonely.”

“Well… yeah, but Ben, and Randi, and Ryan will be here, and Lucy for a little while. You’ve been saying how you wanted to get to know them better.”

“You’re right. But that doesn’t excuse you from coming down.”

“I know, I know.” Greg pauses long enough to think of a new topic. “So should we wait for Ryan and Eirik?” He stands up.

“Nah, they know where class is.” She opens the door, and the two walk out together.

Eirik sat up in the floor of the lab. Completely healed and revived. Ryan was waking up near by, as were Matron, and Lady Moore. Adam was coming around too.

“What happened?” Lady Moore asks.

“We died,” Ryan replied. She shot him a look. “We got better.”

“Why would Belle kill you guys… she knows you can’t die,” Matron adds.

“Um, duh. It was a warning. Of course she didn’t mean for us to truly be dead. That wouldn’t be warning us!” Eirik huffs, getting to his feet.

“So, are you going to co-operate now, and explain what this thing is Belle has?”

Matron sighed and shook her head.

Eirik and Ryan rush into the room of RAs and take their seats.

Jay looks up at them from the front of the room, raises an eyebrow and is about to speak. Looking at their heavy panting, he decides to let it go.

“So tonight we’re just going to break up into our co’s and work on our group projects. Sound good?” he says, clapping his hands. “If there are any questions, come see me. If not, have a good evening!”

The class quickly disperses into little clusters and head out and around the college to little spots. Greg, Madeline, and Kira join Ryan at a table just outside the meeting room.

“This is the second week in a row you’ve been late Ryan,” Madeline says as they settle down. “Trouble getting to campus.”

“Kind of. Eirik and I just ran into a lot of familiar faces as we came up from the road, and they wouldn’t take “Got to go” for an answer.”

“That sucks.”

“Anyone I know?” Greg asks, catching on.

Ryan locks eyes with him. “Belle. Quinn. Neither was happy to see us.”

“When are they ever?” Kira laughed, catching on to the code.

“But let’s get back to work on the project, so we can get outta here soon,” Madeline suggests, opening her notebook. “Ok, so who is making what flyers?”

Adam opens the door to the closet next to his cell. He plugs one device onto one side of the closet’s neural interface and another onto his arm where there is an exposed panel of a console.

In his mind, a display screen pops up of a view from above Prison 8, slowly lowering down to the ground.

In reality, a small remote controlled drone is setting down near the ruins of the eight PCSC Prison.

It scans the area with infrared, and nothing, predictably, comes up.

Firing off its rear jets, the probe enters the ruins and begins to slowly search around. Dead zombies lie everywhere. The craft scans over the ground, and passes through a doorway.

Lying on the floor in their, face down, is the body of Liche. Her head is nowhere to be seen.

Still no life signs show up on the droids sensors… which means nothing for this building. It progresses into the next chamber. On the floor, lies a body, covered in robes. The probe lowers and lands next to it, and begins scanning.

No life signs come from Cooper’s body.

Adam sighs and prepares to disconnect from the system and recall the droid. Then a beep occurs in the system. He rushes to process it. “A pulse!” the android cheers.

Blood had rushed through the body. Just once. It was slow, it was almost non-existant, but it was there.

“Of course!” Adam exclaims. “Without the soul, the body reverted to some super slight state of suspended animation… that is why it needed the life support system in the tomb!”

Adam sent out the retrieval command and quickly disconnected from the system.

“Got to go call the others.”

Ryan recalled his eyesight through the ruins of prison 8. As the vision returned into his own head, he got one last look at the lot of them: Adam, Ben, Eirik, Lucy, Randi, Greg, himself, Dee with his hand on Ryan’s back, laying on the ridge just below the Prison.

“It’s like Adam said… empty. Nothing living or undead anywhere, except Cooper’s body.”

“Then let’s head in and get it!” Eirik cheers, waving an arm.

The group stands and rushes into the area.

“Nothing,” Eirik says, fingers pressed to his temple at the doorway into the ruins of the building.

“What happened here anyway?” Greg asks as they step inside.

“The school blew up buildings, to try and halt the spread of the zombie strain once Liche began raising the dead. It didn’t work, merely created more dead bodies.”

“I still don’t sense anything,” Eirik announces after they sweep the first room.

“I’ll send out my shadow,” Greg suggests. He switches his MPX onto battery power and projects the gray ghostly version of himself outward. It walks straight through the wall. A moment later it returns.

“Safe,” it declares before phasing back into Greg.

The group continues onward.

After a few moments, they reach the innermost chamber. A pile of rubble, with moonlight shining on it. And on the floor near the rubble, a body.

Ryan kneels down and checks the vitals. “Almost not existent… but there is breath… and there is a pulse.”

“Oh god, did you have to do that while I was watching?” Eirik asks, turning away.

“Let’s get him back to Cowell,” Adam acknowledges.

Eirik and the android grab opposite ends of the body and carry it out, the others guarding them as they leave.

Reality slices open, and Mannequinn steps through. She looks up at the visage of the glass walled A-Framed house.

“And I thought Morbius was guilty of being stuck in the Gothic Imaginary,” she laughed as she began to approach the Porter Demon’s hideout. Then she began to sing. “The Devil went down to Georgia… just looking for a soul to steal…”

Everyone sat around staring at each other from the various corners of the training room.

“So we have a supped up Belle, and a supped up Mannequinn,” Ryan summarized.

“And what do we do now?”

“I don’t know Greg,” Ryan buries his face in his hands.

“On the one hand we got a demon bitch who is in possession of… what again?” Eirik asks.

“A synthus void,” Matron announces. “It is a place in space time where the laws of reality are bendable. A black hole for perspective.”

“Ignoring the fact that you wanted to use it to wipe us out of existence, her possessing it is not a good thing, or so my head is telling me,” Ryan says, pointing to his head. He quickly replays the image of the purple black ball swallowing the Earth.

“But we also have to deal with the problem of Mannequinn,” Ben declared.

“And apparently a corpy gollum with a necron stone is a bad thing?” Lucy asks.

“Corpsegolem,” Ryan repeated.

“Whatever the fuck that is!” Eirik repeats, throwing up his hands.

“A body comprised of bodies. Built, not born. Granted a life between lives. No soul, but a spirit. Trapped between the living and dead. It must follow the commands of the one who gave it life,” Ryan explained.

“So then how was she able to take the stone from Morbius?” Randi asks.

“Morbius didn’t give her life…” Adam answers. “The stone did.”

“So what do we do now?” Eirik asks, scanning the faces in the room.

“We have to deal with both of them… as always,” Lucy replies, looking straight down, shoulders slumped. Then under her breath she mutters, “If I didn’t have enough problems with just trying to graduate!”

“Well Mannequinn is gone, we don’t know where she is, right?” Greg announces.

“But we do know where the Porter Demons are, right hunny?” Randi replies, grabbing Ben’s arm.

“Yes, we do…” Eirik looks up at Matron. “Do you think we have any shot at taking out Belle and the Synthus?”

“It is possible… but I do not know it’s weaknesses since I was not the one who could control it.”

“Will you help us?” Eirik asked. She shrugged.

“We need weapons. Lots of them,” Ben announced to the group.

“Covered,” Adam replied.

“Transportation?” Lucy asked.

“Two cars and Adam’s cycle. Plenty.”

“A plan?” Greg asked.

Ryan lifted his head. His eyes were vaguely gray in color. “Working on it.”

“Then let’s get moving,” Eirik announced. “Now or never.”

“Now,” the others replied, hopping off their seats and following him to the door.

Mannequinn strolled up the main staircase until she reached the landing above the garage. She looked around herself for a moment before proceeding to the front door. It had been damaged at somepoint, and shoddily reattached.

“Someone isn’t going to be getting their security deposit back,” she quipped before knocking. The knock seemed to die in the wood of the door, no echo came from within.

However, a few moments later, the front door opened. A young male, late teens, slicked back hair, answered. “May I help… YOU!” he gasped in realization of who was at the door. Before he could react, she jabbed a Dead String into his neck.

“Keep quiet, and drop that silly illusion spell,” she ordered. His mouth shut and his body reverted back into that of Alton the demon. “Now tell me, where is it?”

He steps back from the doorway and points towards the second floor landing. Mannequinn smiled and went inside, patchwork quilt flowing behind her.

Eirik and Ryan strapped on guns to their backs. “Any luck yet, interpreting the vision?” Eirik asks.

“Not yet. More words just hanging at the back of my head…”

“Don’t worry, it’ll come to you if we need it to.”

“Um… hello?” comes a small voice near the door to the cell. The friends look up, Adam is standing behind a shadowy, translucent figure.

“Cooper!!” Ryan shouts, rushing over.

“What happened?” Eirik asks.

“Mannequinn took the stone from Morbius, and absorbed all of his soul into it, and thus his power.”

“But how did you get away?” Ryan asks.

“She just sent me away. No more need for me once she had the stone. She said something about not needing anyone but herself.”

“I’m going to take him up to the med chamber, get him checked out, maybe we can re-establish him into his body,” Adam announced.

“My body?”

Ryan smiled. “We got it back for you.”

Cooper sighed with relief. Adam led him out of the room. “We’ll be back soon.”

“Be safe,” Kira says to Greg after a moment of hesitation. Greg pauses in his retrieval of his MPX from his closet to respond.

“I will.”

“Can I”

“No,” he replies, cutting her off. “This is just such a big enemy. I just don’t want…”

“I know Greg, I know.” She puts her hands behind her neck and removes the clasp on her necklace. Bunching the chain in her hand, she hands the pendant to Greg.

“Your pendant?” he says, looking at it. It is a small blue gem set in a silver wire frame. “Why?”

“It is a charm of protection. No one in my family has ever been harmed while wearing this. That is why I wanted to go with you guys. But I will just give this to you and pray for your safety.”

“Kira…”

“Hey, they’re waiting for you. Go get them.” She opens the door and smiles.

Greg smiles back as he tucks the pendant into his jacket pocket. He follows her out into the hallway and lets the door to his room close on its own.

“What is she doing here?” Tessa wails, leaping up from the couch.

“Deal with her,” Mannequinn commands. Alton spits a ball of fire that ignites across Tessa’s fur and sends her flying back over the couch.

“What’s going on in here?” Graham yells, as he rushes out to the sound of Tessa’s pained howl.

“Him too,” the corpsegolem decrees. Alton turns his head towards the kitchen that Graham was racing from. He spits a glob of acid into Graham’s face.

“Alton?” Graham screamed. “What are you doing?” He pulled his hands away from his face. The acid snot coated his hands, none was on his face. “I already cleaned today… and what is she?” Mannequinn shot another thread into Graham’s chest.

“Graham, check on Belle,” she demands. “Alton, join him.”

“But, I…” Graham shivers with confliction. The pain in his chest grows and he begins to walk up the staircase towards the upper landing. Alton follows. Once at the top, the rocky demon knocks on the Master bedroom door.

“WHAT?” Belle roars from the inside.

“We need to talk,” Alton replies.

“Later, I’m busy,” she replied. “The SlugGang are on their way here! I must make ready.”

“But there is someone here to see you now?”

“Who is that?” Belle roars, opening the door. She looks down at the bottom and spies Mannequinn. “I see. And what brings the little string doll here?”

“Oh, I don’t need strings anymore. I’m a real girl now,” she laughs. The necron stone flashes around her neck. “And I’ve got my own dollies now. Grab her.”

Graham wraps his hands around Belle and lifts her into the air.

“You dare lay hands on me Graham? I could destroy you with a thought!” the bird demon’s eyes glow purple.

Mannequinn leaps up to the landing and draws out her scythe. She also draws out a thread and jabs it into Belle’s heart. “But you won’t.” Belle’s eyes turn back to their normal yellow brown. “Now then, you’re going to be a good little living dead and obey everything I tell you, right?”

A light was slowly going out within Belle, Mannequinn could feel it. But then, the light began to intensify. “Wrong!” Belle cried. A purple-black aura appeared around of her and pushed outward, knocking Graham and Alton to the walls, and knocking them out.

A green light shone in Mannequinn’s eyes. “Fine. Let’s play.”

The two women leapt at each other.

Two vehicles pull up outside the Porter Gulch House. A motorbike grinds to a halt in front of the cars. Dei’TethKuTana appears in a puff of smoke in front of the bike. From the cars, the SlugGang and Matron pour out.

“There are terrible forces colliding inside of the house,” the former Head Porter Demon announces.

“Mannequinn is already here?” Randi asks. The demon nods.

Lucy charges her shotgun. “Well let’s add one more to the fray.”

“Once more, through the looking glass,” Ryan reiterates, tying a blindfold over his face.

Matron raises her arms and a ring of white light surrounds the group. It flashes, and they are gone.

“Bitch!” Belle screeches aloud as she hurls a ball of black energy at Mannequinn.

“No, that’d be your singed furred compatriot over there,” the Corpsgolem replies, slicing through the ball with her scythe.

Belle was breathing heavily floating in the air; Mannequinn was calm and composed standing on the upstairs landing still. The demon took in a deep breath and let out a wall rumbling, demonic shriek.

“Shut her up!” Mannequinn commands. Though the sound cannot reach the two male Porters, its essence reaches their strings. Alton spits a glob of acid spit, which clumps onto Belle’s backfeathers. The utterance from the bird stops. Then Alton spits a ball of fire. She screams a regular scream as the flames wash over her back. Her energy field quenches it, but not until many feathers were scorched.

“You wouldn’t be half as calm if it weren’t for your little puppets!” Belle hissed.

“Oh, so now you’re saying they’re the puppets, and I’m not. Which is it Belle?” Mannequinn laughs.

The demon’s eyes narrowed. “You’re all puppets. Just look at you, full of strings. Is there even one original thought in your head that Morbius or that stone didn’t give you?” While she spoke, a black-purple glow was forming behind Belle’s opponent.

The Corpsegolem smiles. “Nice try, but I’ll never play cliché headgames with my enemies.”

“I was just stalling,” belle laughs, eyes opening wide as the glowing energy lunged out tendrils to attack.

Mannequinn whirled around and slashed through all of them with one swoop, her cloak spinning around her fluidly. “So was I.” A web of black light wrapped it’s strands around Belle, pinning her arms to her sides.

The strands, reaching up from the shadows on the ground below, began to pull her down. Mannequinn leapt down to the hardwood floor of the grand room.

“A decent fight. But now, what is yours is mine.” Mannequinn raised the scythe and let it’s blade fall.

The SlugGang appeared off to the side of all of this as Belle let out a world splitting final scream. The air itself distorted. The wall of windows shook and shattered outward. The force of the blast was so strong, that the very air in the room seemed to momentarily be sucked out of the room.

“Talk about barging in on an awkward moment!” Greg said under his breath to the others.

Mannequinn turned an eye towards the group and smiled. The necron stone began to shine, as it drew the soul out of Belle, into itself. As soon as the spirit was safely entrapped, the black-purple aura faded from the Porter Demon, now falling to the floor, limp, and wrapped itself around Mannequinn, intermingled with the green and red energy she emanated.

“Now then,” she said, addressing the SlugGang for the first time. “You have a choice to make. I have no reason to go after you. You thwarted Morbius’ plans, not my own. I have no grudge against you. But you are here now, and you are do-gooders. The decision is yours: Stay out of my way, or You Will Fall to Me.”

“Big threat,” Eirik announced as his arm transformed into a cannon. “But we’ve heard worse.”

“So it Shall Be.” The aura around her vanished as she began to walk towards the group. Then all at once it flared outward in a brilliant wave of sound, light, and mental energy.

“SHIT!” Ryan shouted. He and Randi had just barely managed to throw up their shield barriers. “What now?”

“Well, the good news is we only have one threat to worry about…” Eirik notes. “But the bad is she is really, really powerful now!”

“Let me deal with her,” Matron decides.

“Serious?” Eirik asks.

“I shall not be trumped by her.” She dissipated into smoke and passed through the shield barrier.

Mannequinn dropped her attack. “Suit yourself witch.” A pillar of blue fire shot forward from her.

Matron lunged with her staff plunging unphased through the fire. Her staff smashed into Mannequinn’s abdomen, and passed through it.

“I can defy physical laws too,” she laughed. “Only I can do it to my advantage.” The necron master phased into Matron and phased back in, disrupting the smokey ethereal essence that was the demon. Matron screamed out in pain as her body dissipated. “Next.”

“Anyone else want to rush out there and get killed?” Adam scoffed.

“She didn’t die… Mannequinn would have absorbed her soul,” Ryan corrected.

“We’ll I’m plum out of ideas,” Eirik said. “Anyone else have a strategy?”

“She is drawing out the power from the Synthus,” Ben announced. He was wearing his OCXs and could see a line stretching from her aura to the upper bedroom. “If we can lure her farther away, and then try and sever the link…”

“I’ve led a good life… and will respawn,” Ryan laughed. “I’ll go draw her away.”

“Me too,” Eirik echoed.

Ryan dropped his shield and ran off to the right side of Mannequinn, closer to the back edge of the grand room. He begins to unload a clip of phase shots from his blaster into her. Mannequinn’s eyes flash green and a jagged line of pain rips across Ryan’s arm. Before she gains control of it with the string still embedded in his flesh, he tosses the gun to the other hand and keeps firing.

Annoyed, the corpsgolem merely draws out her scythe. As she prepares to swing, black energy grips Ryan, halting his actions. The scythe rises.

“Not so fast,” Eirik yells, stabbing his sword-arm through her back and out her stomach.

The green aura spreads around her as she grabs the blade in front of her. The metal burns and melts, decaying away. Eirik groans as he feels the blade melt. He withdraws it from her, bringing it back into himself as Mannequinn turns around. The wound bleeds, but is healing quickly.

“I took you out before I had stone or Synthus,” she addressed to Eirik as she grabs his arm and begins to crush it. “What makes you think I can’t do it now!” She lifts him and tosses him over her head. He lands on the ground and slides across the floor and over the lip of the glassless window.

“Eirik!” Lucy calls as he grabs ahold of the ledge with his uninjured arm and hangs above the fifteen foot drop to the rocks in the yard below.

Mannequinn waves a hand and several brightly colored phase snakes shoot towards the rest of the SlugGang. They open fire on them to hold them off from behind Randi’s shield.

While the others are occupied, the corpsegolem approaches Eirik. “Mind the Gap,” she laughs, grinding her foot into his hand.

Her words echo through Ryan’s mind. His eyes grow wide and turn silver as images flood his memory, as well as words.

Ryan looks at his hands. In one is his phase blaster, still aimed at where Mannequinn was. But in the other, the ghostly form of a key. He focuses on it and the black barrier around him shatters.

He turns and aims the key at the snakes. The key vanishes as his hand opens, palm out. The creatures vanish. “Guys, I figured it out!”

“HELP!” Eirik yells as his grip slips and he begins to fall.

“DEE!” Ryan yells. The familiar teleports before Ryan continues. “Now HER!”

The group opens fire on the Necron Wielder. Before she can protect herself, Mannequinn is bombarded with phase bullets from all directions.

And just outside, as he falls, Eirik feels a hand press against his side. He feels warm energy flow into him, down into his legs. Dee grabs ahold of him as Eirik’s feet hit the ground, and are already covered in metal. He absorbs the impact and pushes off with a great springing step. As he ascends into the air his legs revert to normal, and millions of nanites engulf his right arm and left eye. A targeting array appears in his vision. His arm becomes a bigger cannon, with a large solar emitter crystal covering the barrel. He aims the weapon at Mannequinn as his ascent reaches the window. Small jet thrusters emerge on Eirik’s feat as sweat pours from Dei’TethKuTana’s brow. The jets fire, holding him and the familiar aloft.

“Kiss Daylight, you Bitch!” Eirik shouts, firing the solar cannon.

Mannequinn pauses in her healing of wounds as the cannonfire reaches her. The blast, a mixture of artificial sunlight and red phase power, had scattered into a dozen different beams of light that all impact across her, sending her flying back into the back wall of the living room.

“Nailed her!” Eirik cheers as he lands on the floor once more. Dee drops to his knees panting for breath as Eirik recalls his machine parts.

“No, you only raised my ire.” Her eyes pulsed out a green and red beam of light. Cracks, glowing the same color, formed in the walls of the building around her. The walls around them began to crack.

“What’s going on?”

“The gap!” Ryan replied, pointing up to the closet, his eyes glowing silver.

A chunk of wall upstairs broke off and collapsed into itself a glowing red and black ball of light. The carpet on the upstairs landing pulled itself up from the floorboards and was eaten by the ball, as it began to grow.

“It’s a black hole?!” Randi yelled.

“What now?” Lucy asks.

“YOU DIE!” Mannequinn roared. More of the house split apart, absorbed into the Synthus as it continued to grow.

Within less than a minute, the entire house, down to the floor of the grand room, had been absorbed into the Void. Out on the tiny road, people stood in their driveways staring at the growing ball, casting its dark light on the woods even as it absorbed trees into itself.

“Look at you cowering in fear,” she laughed, eyes shimmering. “Morbius was a fool, relying on others to do what he could have easily done himself!” Mannequinn laughed as she walked across the landing towards the others.

“Someone’s grown a pair,” Ryan muttered under his breath.

“I know, she sounds worse than Lady Moore!” Greg laughs. “Always blathering on about how she was controlled by no one.”

“The Vampire was, and shall always be controlled by her own fear and incapability to control anything in her afterlife.” The Synthus vibrated.

“Temper Temper Mannequinn,” Eirik jeered. “It’s almost like you’re bitter against our favorite Night Walker.”

“Or jealous,” Adam replied.

“I’m going to enjoy all your deaths!” Mannequinn replied. The stone shone brighter as more trees flew into the Synthus.

Mind The Gap Trick’s voice echoes in Ryan’s head. A Human Mind Controls the Gap.

Ryan blinks several times.

“Why do you want to kill us?” he asks her.

“Because I can.”

“But why? Destroying the Earth, because you can?” Ryan called.

Mannequinn blinked. “How did you know I… NO! I am doing it because I can. You fools. The Earth is weak, pathetic, worthless. Life has no meaning to it, so why should it be allowed to continue on here.”

“Aren’t you yourself alive?”

“I am a Corpsegolem. Built from the dead. Given life by the Necron Stone.” She narrowed her eyes. “Now stop distracting me. I am going to kill this world! And rid it if its awful self!”

A huge chunk of rock fell off of the cliffedge behind the house and flew into the gaping mouth of the synthus.

“Great fucking job!” Ryan shouts. “Is this your choice, or the choice of the Necron Stone! If it gave you life, then it must be the one controlling you, right?” Mannequinn turns and grows puzzled. “You heard me. It controls you. It wants death. It grows stronger. But it isn’t alive. It isn’t thinking. It simply draws on death. If you destroy the Earth, it’ll be immensely strong, with nothing to use that power on. It’s using you Mannequinn.”

“Liar. It guides me because it cares.”

“It is a fucking stone Mannequinn!” Ryan shouts. “A rock!” He shoots a look at Randi and opens his eyes wide.

“Huh?” she whispers. Ben looks at Ryan’s eyes and nods.

“Randi, she’s distracted!”

“Oh!”

“Then you’ll be the first to die!” The Corpsegolem shouts. The Synthus Void fluxes, shooting a blast of purple lightning like power at Ryan. He raises his shield for a split second. The blast ricochets off the shield and collides with Mannequinn. She withstands it. “Fool.”

“No, you are!” Randi says, putting her left hand on Mannequinn’s neck. A chill wave flows over Randi’s victim, as Randi draws as much heat as she can from Mannequinn.

“Let m-m-m-me g-g-g-go!”

“You’re destroying the Earth! You’ll be destroyed too,” Ryan shouts.

“Death is better than this world. This empty life. Please, just let me Die!” The stone flashed brilliantly. Mannequinn began to cry. “No… why won’t it let me?! Why won’t it let me die!?

“Because it is YOU that are in control of you,” Ryan replies. He walks towards her, hand outstretched. “You have to choose. Life, or death?”

Mannequinn stared at Ryan. She had fallen to her knees, Randi was still behind her, holding on while crouched.

“I…. I… I don’t want to die…” she gasped.

Ryan nodded to Randi. “Hit the stone!”

She released her grip and drew her Sai. Focusing, she let all the heat she had just absorbed flow into the blade as it struck into the Necron Stone. The gem screamed and shattered, burning as it’s pieces fell to the floor.

The Synthus began to calm. It ceased absorbing, and began to shrink. It was also settling down towards the ground, lowering from the sky. From the street, onlookers were murmering about not illegal fireworks and laws as they returned to their buildings.

“Mine,” Adam said, snapping a metal cylinder shut around the Synthus. “I know just the place to keep this!”

“Wow… Glad we never lived here after all!” Ben laughed, resting his arms on his hips. Randi walked over and kissed him.

“I did it!” she cheers. Ben smiles back and kisses her forehead.

“I… I want to… live…” Mannequinn sobbed, as she curled up in a ball on the floor of the once Grand Room.

Kira’s face was beaming brighter than ever before as her arms embraced Greg. “I’m so glad you made it back safely!!”

“Me too,” Greg replied. His face was happy, but more calm and serene than beaming, as he held her back.

“And just in time for finals!” She laughed as she broke the embrace.

Greg groaned. “Don’t remind me! We’ve still got that RA project to attend to.”

The two of them laughed before sitting down and turning on the Game Cube.

Ryan, Eirik, and Ben finished sliding the futon back into place in the small single bedroom.

“Well, it’s back the way it was when I moved in,” Ryan replied.

“12 months, to the day,” Ben announces, looking at the room.

“I can’t believe I’m really leaving it,” Cooper announces, looking over the room.

Eirik smiles. “Don’t worry. We can always take you back for visits… once Adam reattaches your soul to your body. And the room he is setting up for you in Beard Cell Block is really nice.”

“Yeah, I know,” Cooper says, beginning to follow the others out into the hallway.

“This has got to be the strangest year ever,” Ryan replies, looking at the place still. The others turn back towards Ryan.

“What do you mean?” Eirik asks.

“Well… this is the first time, since our wacky lives began… that things didn’t reset to normal. Cooper’s still a ghost, the house on Porter Gulch Road is still destroyed. Matron reformed, but is comatose again. Mannequinn is locked up. The villains weren’t defeated… simply transformed.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Ben asks.

“I don’t know. Its just… I don’t think our lives are ever going to be normal. Things will never go back to a real semblance of normal… And that’s fine with me.”

“I don’t know about you four!” Lucy announces as she reaches the body of the steps. “But once August hits and I’m back in Boston, I hope normalcy sets back in.”

“Come on Lucy, you know you want to come back!” Eirik teases.

Lucy pauses for a moment. “Ok, you’re right. But it doesn’t mean I’ll be packing a phase weapon in my bag.”

“Of course not, you’re leaving them at my place!” Eirik laughs. “Along with all of Danielle’s stuff!” He groans. “Too bad I can’t fit it all!”

“Eirik, it is 1:30 in the morning. Our lease ended 90 minutes ago. We have no keys to the house. It had better all fit!” Ryan sighs with a half laugh at the end.

“Well, I’ll just come by tomorrow and pick up the rest from the back patio,” he shrugs after opening the front door. “Ready?”

“Just a sec!” Lucy says, rushing upstairs. A moment later she returns with her bookbag. “Lights are off. Doors and windows closed. Now I’m ready.”

Eirik holds the front door for all of them as they step outside, one by one. He shuts the door behind them.

“One last group shot, before we leave?” Ben asks. The others groan while he sets up his camera. It flashes in the dark, with their tired weary faces smiling for it. “Great!”

“Alright, now lets get out of here before we get anymore Supernatural Houseguests!” Ryan laughs.

“Hey! They weren’t all bad!” Cooper laughs back, following Ryan to Ben’s car.

Eirik and Lucy pile into the van and pull away after Ben, Ryan, and Cooper.

Once they turn off the street, their minds turn away from the past year. And a small greenish creature, a Kappa, rounds the corner from the beach, and scuttles up to the front door.

It looks around itself, and opens the front entry way, scurrying inside…..

THE END