Eirik’s body was layed out on his bed in his world. The lights were out in the room, but his computer monitor was still on and its scrolling blue screensaver cast a dull light around the room. His body was motionless.

“I can’t believe he’s dead…” Lucy said, clutching her knees to her chest. She and Ben were sitting just outside the room in the first floor hallway, backs against the wall.

“I can’t believe it either…” Ben said back. “I always knew that going to PCSC was a risk, of course… but I never thought death was a possibility!”

Danielle clutched her pillow tighter and tighter and cried huge cries. The tears kept coming. She shut her eyes as hard as she could, to try and hold back all her emotions, but she couldn’t. Alex stood next to her, running his hand along her head over and over, showing her that he was still physically there.

But his mind was not really there… he was lost in all of his own thoughts about death, and what was going to happen next.

“Now what…” Hogan said as he lay on his own bed. Blair was lying beside him, and was rubbing his shoulders.

“I don’t know,” she answered.

“I mean… Kura is still out there. But Eirik is gone now. Ryan is who knows where, doing who knows what…”

“I’m sure he has good reason. Everyone deals with grief in different ways after all.”

“I know,” he rolled over onto his back, looked up at her eyes and smiled half-heartedly.

The elves were murmuring constantly, their ranks a buzz with gossip and speculation. One tall elf with short blonde hair near Jagre’s throne was trying to call the assembly to order, to little avail.

Suddenly the doorway activated and Ryan appeared. His eyes were ablaze. Any elf his gaze fell on became immediately intimidated and looked away. There were some whispers, but other than that, the room was silent.

“What is the meaning of this?” Jagre said, standing up as Ryan walked closer to him. “You were not bidden! This is twice now you have entered our sacred-”

“Stuff it spindly legs, I’m not in the mood for your hypocrisy tonight!” Ryan stopped in front of Jagre and glared at him. “Eirik is dead.”

There was no reaction from the elves. They seemed unsurprised.

“Just as I thought. That does not bother you guys. So I want some answers. You owe me.”

“We owe you nothing human!” The elf said.

“Oh, don’t you? We’ve been your puppets all year elf-boy!” Ryan snapped back. “You owe us quite a lot! You risked our lives out there against Slug Demons, Porter Demons, man-hating dolphins, and most importantly… KURA! You owe us big time!”

“We had nothing to do with any of those,” Jagre replied manner-of-factly.

Ryan laughed then turned around. “You don’t? Well I think you do! Meg said something to me just before she escaped… She said somebody had to have chosen us. Adam had no way of finding Eirik and myself, specifically us too, and that someone had to have led him to find us. It made me think about something Jagre said when I paid him a surprise visit earlier that evening. He said “Don’t prove us wrong.” So what the hell am I supposed to think?”

He paced around in a small circle before swinging back towards Jagre. His heart was pounding. Ryan had never been one for big confrontations like this, but something had to be done. Enough was enough.

“Now then. With the issue of who chose Eirik and me settled, I had another question to try and answer. Meg asked me: Why us? Why Eirik and myself and not any two other Joes? And things started lining up in my head. All of our friends have doubles here, right? But not Eirik and me. Ours are dead! They died three months before we were first brought here! In fact, they died at the same time that all our High School friends and we gave up all of our bizarre abilities we had picked up during High School. Did that have something to do it?”

Ryan smirked, and looked Jagre in the eye. “Tell me Jagre, why did you pick us. Tell me or…” Ryan trailed off and pulled out his phase blaster. He put the barrel right up next to his head and took off the gun’s safety. “…or I’ll pull the trigger. And if I do, you will have lost BOTH of your little lackies. What then?”

“Put down the gun Ryan; it wont work,” Jagre said firmly, his face unchanged, although he was getting more and more angry.

“You afraid I’ll actually do it? You afraid I’ll do it and prove my hypothesis for why we were brought here?” Ryan pulled the gun away from himself and began waving it around the room. “Ya know, Eirik asked me once: How do you think our doubles died… We knew the mechanism; it was a psynuclear bomb they themselves detonated. But he wasn’t asking about that. There is a secret us Outsiders have that we don’t talk about a whole lot outside of our group! And I’m betting you know that!”

“What secret is this?”

“The one that explains why you choose Eirik and myself. In theory, this same secret applies to the NonSensical gang here in this world… which is why Eirik and myself were so amazed by our sudden deaths! It is also why I am here now and not off mourning the death of my dear roommate. I know better, and so do you. So enough of me explaining things: Riddle me this… why did you need to have a Ryan and Eirik… EITHER Ryan and Eirik, here this year?”

Jagre stood up. “Excellent deductions Ryan. Our clan of elves has long had the power of deducing the lines of fate that will show what shall happen in the future. Almost three years ago, a man let loose the demon known as Kura into this world again. This occurred on the same day as the day Guagum the gremlin first appeared to you and your friends in your world.

“Kura is a demon of death. He was once released hundreds of years ago and fed off of the death and destruction of humans at the hands of his forces. He was eventually defeated and banished back to the phase reality until Adam’s creator set him free. We knew at that time that the only people who were capable of defeating such a being without making him stronger first, would be Ryan Watt and Eirik Neilsen. The lines of fate said they would be sentenced to come here.

“Imagine our surprise when we learned that the two of them had died. No one else in this world had the skills or experience to defeat Kura. So we decided to look elsewhere. We knew about your world because it is your world’s students that leave us offerings in their Elfland, while this world knows nothing of us. So we sent Jenna out to find their living doubles. She found you. Immediately our Jenna patched into Adam’s computer systems, using what abilities she had gained from her doppelganger, to lead Adam to finding your world. Thus, you two were brought in.

“It was always meant to be just you two… but you dragged your friends into the mixture. We had not anticipated that. It was an alteration in the timeline that resulted from our interference. And now… you have come this far. Kura’s army has been defeated, and now all that is needed to ensure time is kept how it is meant to be kept… is for the Slug Gang to destroy Kura.”

The rest of the elves were silent. Ryan was silent. His eyes were downcast. All his suspicions were confirmed. But there was still one question.

“When you said “from what Jenna picked up from her double” you were referring to something similar to our superpowers.” Ryan’s eyes were ablaze again. “That is why Meg and Adam don’t have any extra abilities after crossing through arches… they don’t have doubles in the other world.”

“That is correct. Your superpowers are a result of the demonizing effects of crossing the dimensional rift… and the fact that you interact in the world of your doubles… you pick up abilities of theirs.”

“Ah! But I could see archways before I ever crossed through one! The first time Adam pulled me to PCSC, I saw the doorway for a second before I crossed through. How do you explain that?”

Jagre looked around the assembled group. He caught some of their glances and nodded to them. “We implanted abilities into you… last summer. We caused you two to both slowly develop into minor versions of your doubles.”

“That still doesn’t explain Eirik’s arm… why it became robotic.”

“Actually… it does. And why you can see invisible things and why you closed the tear this evening.”

Ryan pulled his head back and gave Jagre a cold stare. “Who the hell are our doubles?!”

Jagre waved his hand, and from the fires near him came the image of two figures. One was tall with short, spikey blonde hair. His legs were entirely covered in machines, in fact, it looked like his legs were entirely robotic. The same was true of his right arm, and of his left eye.

The other was slightly shorter, but still somewhat tall. He had messy brown-black hair in a pile on his head. It looked almost feathery. He wore a brown leather jacket and a blue shirt underneath, as well as ripped up brown pants. From his back were two wings made out of glossy black feathers. His eyes were solid yellow, and he was sneering.

“This is Cyrik and Black Watt, formerly Eirik Neilsen and Ryan Watt,” Jagre announced. “The most feared criminal masterminds in the known world before their deaths… and you and Eirik’s doubles.”

“No…. way….” Ryan said in shock. He approached the images.

“Cyrik is the cybernetically enhanced leader of the NonSensical gang. He led with an Iron Fist, although much of the true power of the group came from the others. His special features include great strength, endurance, and a computer system enhanced brain capable of detecting supernatural entities, and classifying them, before he even sees them.”

“Which explains Eirik’s headaches and his arm…”

“Black Watt was the dark sorcerer of the group. In addition to his many other powers… he was gifted with the third sight… the ability to see beyond the physical world. Black Watt was also capable of summoning demons and opening portals in time and space…”

“Which explains my visions… why I could see invisible things… and why I can use the phase dagger.”

“Yes,” was all Jagre had left to say. “So now do you understand why we brought you here? We needed to preserve our world’s timeline.”

“By perverting mine?” Ryan shot back, regaining his focus and furor. “You’ve caused more demons to parade into my world, attacking innocents! You’ve led Eirik and me to demonize our friends! And all so your precious timeline would be preserved!! What if you were wrong? The NonSensicals died for some reason… maybe they were meant to die! Maybe Kura was meant to take over this world! But now that he has threatened my world… we have to stop him! You’ve left us with no choice! So we will go and stop him, but for our reasons, not for yours Jagre!”

Ryan turned around to leave. As he got close to the door he turned back to the master of the elves. “And if you ever try to mess with us again… well, I know where you live and how to get past the locks.” He twirled the gun once more, holstered it, and walked out.

Eirik’s monitor had shut off by now, but the room was still partially aglow. In the corner by Ryan’s bed, between the dresser and his pillows, there is a box lid with a mess of straw and leaves making a nest… with an egg in it. It was resonating… glowing on and off. So was something in one of Eirik’s drawers.

Ryan’s room was dark when he got back; the glows had ceased. He had cut back through into UCSC shortly after leaving the elves den… he did not want to encounter any of the angry demon hordes on their way back to Tree 9.

He stepped over to his desk and dumped out the contents of his pockets. Then he went over to his bed, and dumped his Slug Gear into the drawer below it. As he stood up, he heard something moving on the other side of the room.

“Ugh.”

“Good Morning Eirik,” Ryan said, straight faced.

“Ugh, morning… what happened?”

Hours later, Ryan opened the door to answer the knock at it. Still stone faced, he looked up to see Danielle, Ben, Hogan, and Lucy standing in the doorway. Alex was at the drinking fountain behind them, and stood up as he heard the door open.

“Oh good, you’re back. We were so worried!!” Danielle said. Ryan didn’t say anything.

“We came by to help figure out how to deal with-” Ben started, but was cut off.

“Oh hi guys!” Eirik said, poking his head around the door. Ryan moved aside and let the others rush in.

“EIRIK!” They all burst out in unison. Lucy and Danielle immediately started hugging him.

“How… how is this possible? He was dead!” Ben said, wide eyed. Alex’s jaw had dropped open, and he was subsequently speechless.

“Look!! No wounds even! Eirik, are you okay?” Lucy said. She didn’t give him a chance to answer as she kissed him.

“I’m fine! I’m fine! We can explain everything!” Eirik said, finally getting a chance to breath and laugh.

“Yes, everyone…. Please sit down,” Ryan asked, gesturing to all the seating in the room. The five friends took seats and waited as Eirik leaned against the back of his chair and Ryan stood, arms folded, at his side.

“Ryan and I never told you the full story about the Outsiders… our group of friends in High School,” Eirik started. “I’ll let him explain it fully… but basically… we can’t die.”

“But! I saw your wounds! Adam pronounced you dead!” Danielle said; tears of joy started to form in her eyes.

“As he said, that was putting it in basic terms,” Ryan explained. “We can die… but if it is caused by something supernatural like demons, ghosts, gremlins, or unofficial apocalypses… we are only dead for a few hours before ourselves and anyone killed with us are returned to life… no questions asked.”

“But that’s… impossible!” Hogan replied.

“Not by contemporary knowledge. But than again, Danielle’s magical powers, and our phase daggers, and Demons in general are impossible by the same logic.” Ryan paused. His expression had not changed one bit. “One of the earliest tribes of humans was exposed to a supernatural alien device that caused the members of the tribe to live forever. When one life ends, their soul duplicates. One goes to heaven, the other is reborn in a new generation. In each life, the members of the tribe are drawn together around supernatural events. That is why we were friends in High School. Eirik, myself, and the Outsiders are the current incarnation of that tribe.”

“And as Ryan has explained it to me,” Eirik continued, “that is why Jagre and the elves brought us two here: Because demons and monsters and phase weapons can’t kill us. Unfortunately, we brought you all here as well.”

“So you’re saying I could shoot you guys with a phase blaster right now…” Hogan said, “and in a few hours you would get up totally healed like nothing happened?”

They nodded.

“Amazing,” Alex said under his breath, a little in shock.

“But this doesn’t apply to you. You guys can die. That is why we are going into PCSC one more time. We take out Kura, we defeat his forces, we come back, we stay here.” Ryan was adamant. No room for questioning.

“How are we going to do that? Kura is a master demon. A demon straight from the phase reality! He has more power than we can imagine…” Danielle said. “We’re not ready for that.”

“We have to be,” Ryan said, eyes staring off into space.

“We have a plan, and we don’t have much time to get ready for it,” Eirik announced. Eirik looked over at Ryan. “Lets go, I’ll tell you all about it so we can get ready.”

The group nodded and stepped out of the room. Ryan sat down on his bed, still with the blank look on his face. He turned his focus to the outside world, where students were enjoying their Sunday morning by lying out in the quad. He frowned.

“Sounds a little crazy to me…” Hogan said after hearing the whole plan.

“It may be, but this is our best shot,” Eirik replied. “So lets not discuss the sanity of the plan and stick to what is more important: Can it be done? And before this evening?”

“We’d have to haul ass to build all of it,” Ben answered, “but yeah, we could do it.”

“Lucy?” Eirik said, turning to her, she was sitting on the gymnastiball again.

“Yeah, I can have them ready… as well as Robot,” she said this with a short roll on the ball. She lost her balance and fell off.

Once everyone had finished chuckling and helping her back up, the group got quiet.

“Eirik,” Danielle started, “is Ryan okay? This sounds odd, but even though you were dead a few hours ago… I’m more worried about him.”

“I think he’ll be okay… He’s going through a lot. From what he told me about our doubles… and knowing we’ve got parts of them inside of us… heck, this whole year in general… I’m surprised I’m not doing worse! I think it is just best that we leave him to work through it. He’ll talk to us if he needs to. And right now we have to get ready to go take on Kura…”

“I guess you’re right,” she said. “I’m going to head back to my room then. I’ll need to do a little more practice of my abilities before I feel confident enough to do this…”

The group, definitely in a somber mood, dispersed out of the room, leaving Ben and Lucy to start digging through the large box of machine parts in Ben’s room.

Several Hours passed.

Ryan lay on his bed, arms folded over him, and looking at the ceiling.

“It’s just…” he said to Alex, who sat on Eirik’s computer checking his e-mail… “I used to want a happy and exciting life… with adventure, and intrigue, and villainy and cool weapons and all that.”

“But?”

“But… now I realize that any one of you guys could get hurt. Our whole logic to our RAs about why we could go around doing this was because we were just, we were doing what was right, and no one was going to get hurt. But Eirik died… yeah he survived, but any one of you could be next… and it would be for real. Plus, how just are we in our actions when we are only there to save a world that basically should not have been saved? We died in that world for a reason! We wouldn’t have been able to die if that wasn’t the case! So what right do we have to go over there and save them now?!”

“Ryan, I’m heading home in a few weeks… back to England… back to normal human lives. And the more I think about it… I would love to stay. And it isn’t just because I like America, or because you guys are all so great. It is because I enjoyed doing this. I like going to PCSC. It’s different. It is fun and exciting! And we are doing good! Who cares if we’re not technically supposed to save this world? We are doing the right thing! Maybe this is what is always supposed to have happened in that world. The elves don’t necessarily know everything.”

“You may be right.”

“No! I know I’m right! Don’t tell me you don’t have fun there! Don’t even start with that! You love it! You know you do!”

Ryan turned his head towards Alex. He sighed.

“You’re right. I do. Sometimes I just worry that my need for fun got us all into more trouble than is worth.” He shook his head. “We’re too far in now. Kura must be stopped. I’ll be fine by tonight. I just need time to reach equilibrium again. Last night was tough on me. Tonight may be tougher.”

Alex nodded. He had nothing else to say to his friend, who turned his head to look out the window at the people in the quad. Most of them were oblivious to the life or death balance going on around them.

And for the first time in the past two days… Ryan did not envy them for it.

Dinner was quiet that night at Stevenson. The group was eating light. They all know they needed to have something in their stomachs… but their nerves were stifling their appetites.

“Hey guys, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about last night.”

The group looked up to see Susan the RA sitting down at the table with them. They had grabbed the long table in the Stevenson Dining Hall that night.

“Um… yeah?” Ben asked nervously. They had all broken the rules last night by bringing out their phase weapons… even though they had saved lives.

“I wanted to thank you… for saving the Dance.” Everyone let out a small sigh of relief. “I mean, you shouldn’t have broken the rules! Ha Ha! But, I’m glad you did because… well… it needed to be done….”

“It’s all part of the job,” Hogan said jokingly.

“Yeah, I guess so.” She looked down into her salad. “It’s just that Ben and I were talking last night and… well…”

“You’re worried that more demons are going to attack?” Lucy said, completing Susan’s thought.

“Yeah!” she looked up, then got embarrassed and looked back down. “I mean… It’s kinda my job to make sure all the students here are okay. It was hard enough for all of the RAs to explain the broken glass and upturned tables in the dining hall last night! We just barely got the school to believe it was in no way the fault of the dance or anyone there so that we can have more dances. And the students? They’re all denying what they saw… exhaustion and stuff. Some are talking but… I don’t think people believe them.

“So tell me straight: Will this happen again? CAN this happen again?”

Everyone around the table was quiet. Although Blair, Jenn, Jenna, Cindi, and Robb all had their heads up, the Slug Gang members avoided eye contact with Susan. Except Ryan. He looked straight into her eyes.

“Yes, it could happen again. The tear the demons came through it still open. But they wont come through in the daylight. Most of the creatures are nocturnal. Tonight we are going through one last time to kill off the rest of these demons, and eliminate their master from the face of the world. If all goes right, the tear will be sealed before midnight, and we will be back here in UCSC… for good.”

Susan smiled weakly. She accepted this, but was probably as worried about this as they were. “Okay… well I’m going to go over and sit with some of the other RAs. There are still some more things we need to discuss about last night. Thanks guys.”

“No problem!” Eirik said as she stood to leave.

“Take care Susan!” Danielle cheered.

Once she was gone, the group looked around at each other. They all knew now that they could not fail that night. There was a lot more at stake than just the lives of those going through the tear that night.

“Heavy Jackets?” Eirik asked.

“Check,” everyone said, padding his or her brown jackets with the maroon stripes.

“Phase blasters, heavy guns, and phase revolvers?”

“Check,” everyone answered making sure their weapons had full clips in them.

“Phase cannon?”

“Check!” Hogan and Lucy announced, holding up the new, better looking model of the weapon. Robot chirped from his spot in this version’s cockpit.

“Lay Line Amplifiers?”

“Check,” Ben said, putting the strap of the duffel bag over his shoulder. He gave the bag a pat.

“Mage staff, phase dagger, shield generator?”

“Check,” Danielle replied with a nod.

“Check and check,” Ryan answered confidently.

“Phase grenades?”

“CHECK!” Everyone said, patting the belts full of them at their waists.

“Then I do believe we are set. Let’s get a-”

Eirik was interrupted suddenly by a chirping noise from Robot. Lucy picked up the data pad and turned it on.

“It’s a message from Adam! He says to get to the bookstore fast!” Lucy announced. “The next wave of demons is heading this way.”

“You heard the lady, lets move it out!”

The six students rushed out of Beard 120, and out towards the bookstore lot.

“How goes it?” Ryan called as he approached the tear in the lead.

“Good! Nothing has come through yet,” Alex replied. He and Jenn were standing near the tear with phase blasters aimed at it. Four amplifiers were situated around the swirling mass of white light, allowing everyone to see it, not just Ryan. Alex volunteered to stay behind for this mission, and Jenn agreed to help out, since she had been to PCSC briefly, and could thus use a phase weapon.

“What happens if we run out of ammo?” Jenn said, looking at the funny looking gun in her hand.

“Pray it doesn’t!” Eirik answered. “But if it does, just yell at them. I hear that is your super power?”

“Yeah it is.”

“Good, so do that. That should slow down anything that comes through.”

The group stepped away from their two friends and walked up to the tear. One by one they rushed through its glowing mass of energy, holding up their phase weapon of choice carefully.

“Good! You made it!” Adam called once everyone was through.

The group walked over to him, and the mass of other people that were behind him. The Slug Gang was amazed to find Adam’s entourage was BomBen, Werewolf Lucy and two other guys, Xander and some Shoquen, Shogun, Elf Jenna, and a few other elves.

“Woah! A whole doppel-gang!” Eirik exclaimed walking over to them. Elf Jenna approached them.

“After Ryan came and talked to the elf council, I realized the mess I helped to cause. I believe it is due to some of the human nature I have picked up from your Jenna. When the council disbanded for the night, I decided to go and contact all of your doubles. These two elves came with me. Once I had contacted all of them, they eagerly agreed to help fight the demons for one reason or another, and Lucy was even able to get a few other werewolves to help out.”

“It was nothing, really. I’m just glad I can help make amends for some of the damage we did when we weren’t in control of ourselves,” she replied, bowing a little.

“Yep, and these Shoquen really wanted to help out too! I couldn’t order them to stay back!” Xander laughed.

“I’m not into any touchy feely reasons,” BomBen put in. “Those Porter Demons harassed me unnecessarily… so I want to pay them back, however I can!”

“I have helped arm them with weapons they can use,” Adam explained. “Some have phase weapons, others will have bows and arrows, or regular guns, or their own werewolf abilities. We will go with you and take on Kura’s army so that the rest of you can go on to defeat Kura himself unimpeded. We will do what we can, but it is up to you to finish this off.”

“Not a problem Adam,” Ryan said. In his head, he could hear the commotion of a large battle, and he could see the six Slug Gang members running through the woods out of the line of fire. Intermixed with that he could feel the ghost like presence of energy around his right hand, his dagger hand.

“Then let us all head out!” Eirik called. The huge group all nodded and rushed up towards the quarry.

The group raced up the road towards Prisons Nine and Ten. Shogun quickly scaled the scaffolding of one of the buildings under construction and began picking off Magog shooters with his sword, which blazed with a faint blue fire. Hogan, from the ground, took out Magogs with his phase rifle.

“Keep moving! These are only the sentries!” Eirik called out. His head was a buzz with images of demons. He could definitely tell that whatever it was in his head that allowed him to sense demons was getting more developed, as Ryan said it was. Now instead of flashes of pain, whenever a demon came within a certain distance, a brief image flashed in Eirik’s head along with the creature’s species. “Slug Demons around the bend!”

The group rounded the turn to head up towards Psychiatric Studies Building 1. From behind it, the group was going to make a charge along a different route up to Tree 9, bypassing the meadow where many of Kura’s troops waited.

About fifteen Slugs awaited them in a small pack. Lucy took the lead. She put her palm over the circular trigger of the phase cannon and activated it. A large ball of yellow energy, crackling with white lighting ripped through the air, crashing into the middle of the Slug Demons. The ball exploded outward with tremendous force, and as Slug Demons flew into the air, Robot unleashed a spray of ballistics from its shoulders, destroying them.

“Overkill much?” Longhaired Lucy said to her two companions from the middle of the pack. Shogun leaped down from a building next to them.

“It might be, but for one night, let us not worry about excessive force. We have a war on our hands!”

Shoquen in their armor’s vehicle mode shot through the fire. Ryan held out his shield to quench the fire by pressing the phase barrier over it. The group rushed over it and towards the line of trees.

They wouldn’t be taking any clear paths for a while, so the group dispersed in a mess. It was too dangerous to move in a pack.

However, there were Tengu waiting in the treetops. They swooped down from on high, screeching at the group.

Shoquen leapt into the air at the birds, sending them toppling to the ground while Ben and Eirik took them out with their guns. Hogan’s heavy gun knocked more down, writing in pain from the increased gravity, while Danielle’s staff lit up like a roman candle, sending the winged demons crashing into trees and rocks and stumps amid a flurry of elf arrows.

After a few minutes of interspersed, quick battles, the group emerged on a fire access road.

“This is where we split up Slug Gang!” Adam announced. “This Doppel-Gang and I are heading to the meadow to distract the rest of Kura’s army while you deal with him! Good luck!” Adam saluted them.

“And to you Adam!” Eirik replied. He hadn’t much liked the android when they had first met nine months before, but now he respected him, and wished the man who had brought him here would survive.

The two groups took their separate ways. Adam, the doubles, and the friends of the doubles, rushed off down the fire access road to the east. Eirik led the other five UC Students up the trailhead towards Tree 9.

Six mug shots flashed through Eirik’s brain as the group leapt up a step up on the path.

“Porter Demons incoming!” Eirik warned. “Take them one-on-one, anyway you can!”

Eirik jumped to the side to avoid the massive fists of Duke, whose eyes were blank and lifeless. The yellow scale covered demon snarled and shot out a ball of energy. Eirik rolled to the side and shot off several rounds of the heavy gun, they rushed off the path. Duke charged after him. Using his demon-sense, Eirik waited for the right moment to spin around, fire off more heavy gunshots, and then hurl his fist into the demon’s stomach. Duke flew back against a tree, which snapped off. As most of the tree fell, it landed on Duke’s head, narrowly missing Eirik as he punched through it with his right arm again. Even with the increased strength the robotics gave him, his hand still smarted.

Meanwhile, Danielle teleported to avoid a flying kick from Belle. She re-appeared behind her, just slightly to the other side of the path. Danielle hurled a ball of energy from her left palm into Belle’s back. The demoness screeched and whirled around, slashing at Danielle with her claw. The two glared at each other. A faint white aura appeared around. Danielle as her eyes became solid white. She lifted into the ground and twirled her staff in her hands. Belle leapt into the air on her wing arms and began to screech, sending earth-shaking waves of sound at Danielle. Danielle shot off a few blasts of magical energy that Belle screamed at to distort. Smirking, Danielle quickly teleported behind Belle again, dodging a slash from Belle’s wings, and shot at her with her phase blaster. Shrieking, Belle fell to the ground.

Graham lifted up a fallen chunk of tree, and swung it at Hogan. But the agile red head ducked, then shot the rock demon a few times with a heavy gun. Ducking another shot, this one slower as Graham struggled under his new gravity, Hogan pulled out the rifle and fired several quick phase shots into the demon’s chest. Graham rolled backwards and Hogan brought around his leg, knocking Graham’s legs out from under him. The rock-demon fell to the ground. Hogan got up and quickly shot off several rounds of blue shots from his phase revolver, stunning Graham into unconsciousness.

Lucy did an amazing forward flip, kicking Tess while standing on her hands. She dropped to the ground, and picked up the phase cannon. Spinning around, she tried to aim a shot at Tess, but the were-bear-cat was too agile and quick, and leapt off tree and rock, preventing a lock on. Lucy frowned and grumbled, and pulled out a grenade. She tossed it where Robot’s sensor pad predicted her next jump would land. It was accurate. The blast sent Tess somersaulting backwards through the air long enough for Robot to fire off a missile spray. The many detonations all around her knocked her out before she landed on the ground.

Alton leapt from a branch of a tree and kicked Ben to the ground. Glaring, Ben pulled out his phase blaster and began shooting wildly at the snake-demon. He hissed and landed on the ground below the volley of shots. Alton opened his jaws and out shot a ball of green fire. Rolling to the side, Ben pulled out a amplifier from the bag and turned on the modification to it. A beam of pure solar energy shot out of the end, temporarily blinding Alton. While the snake hissed and blinked a lot to try and rid himself of the bright spots in his visions, Ben tackled Alton against a tree, stepped back and tossed a phase grenade in front of him. The blast occurred without touching Alton, but the energy knocked him out.

While each of these battles was going on, Ryan ran forward past them all to where Matron was hovering.

“I guess you and I shall be facing off now boy,” she laughed, tossing her cloaked back.

“Shut Up Will Ya? You’re annoying and rude, and won’t dare get your hands dirty… if you have hands under those gloves. Yeah you’ve probably got the most raw power of your rag-tag band, but who’re you fooling? You’re all talk and no show!”

Fire flared in the eye sockets of Matron’s mask. She shot out a ball of fire at Ryan, who let the ball of energy hit the shield. Straining, Ryan held the energy there for a second before throwing out his arm in an arc that sent the fireball flying back at the demon leader.

“Impressive trick boy!” Matron lifted her arm and smoke swirled around it, forming her staff. “Gui’te’tei Juarna!” Several swirling orbs of smoke and light appeared around Matron and moved off towards Ryan. Watching them, Ryan swung his arm around carefully picking up all of the orbs before flinging them into the distance.

“Nice try Matron, but those orbs were various charms to increase your powers. You wanted me to toss them back at you. Nice try, but I kinda saw that one coming a while ago!” Ryan said, tapping the side of his head. “Now lets finish this!” He grabbed his phase blaster and began to fire a large number of shots at her.

She simply waved her hands and created a huge smoke barrier in between them. Her eyes lit up to try and detect him in her cover. Suddenly, a wave of pain flashed through her consciousness. Something had struck her mask. Matron put her hands to her face and found a large energy slash across it. The smoke dissipated, and Ryan stood in front of her, phase dagger ablaze in his hand, smiling. Matron gasped and fell to the ground as a pile of cloth.

“Did you kill her?” Lucy said, walking over with a slight limp. Ben clutched his arm, which was partially scorched, and Danielle was trying to get the ringing out of her ears.

“No,” Ryan replied. “I just wagered the only way to knock her out would be to attack the one solid physical part of her body, so I slashed her mask. I think that disrupter her power flow. Something like that. Whatever it is, I know she’s not dead… I can feel it.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Eirik said. “Now let us get to Tree 9 before much else happens!”

The group turned from the fallen Porter Demons and rushed off up the path.

“Hello Slug Gang, we’ve been expecting you,” Kura said as the six humans entered his layers. They didn’t need psychic or magical powers to sense the pure evil that pervaded this place. The group began to spread out, slowly moving to encircle the tree Kura was standing in front of. “Surrounding me will do no good. You may have tied up my minions with your doubles, but my lovely wife and her minions are still here.”

Eirik suddenly sensed three vampires dropping through the canopy. “Now!” He yelled. All of them dropped to the ground and activated an amplifier that began to spray solar energy in all directions from the beacons on the top.

Hissing could be heard high above them in the treetop. Kura’s eyes flared with anger and rage.

“You dare banish my Red Lady to the trees like a bird?!”

“No, like a bat, which is precisely what she is! A leather winged bat woman with a bad French accent!” Eirik laughed.

“I heard that! You will pay for that girlie-boy!” Lady Moore screamed from above.

“Sorry, we’re too busy kicking your demon boyfriends ass to care right now!” he called back, drawing his phase blaster and aiming it at Kura.

“Time to finish this Kura!” Danielle said, lowering her staff at Kura.

“You’ve caused enough destruction for one existence,” Ryan said, phase dagger igniting in his hand. He narrowed his eyes and focused.

“Fools, all of you!” Kura roared. He held up his sword and slashed it through the air, sending a wave of black energy at them. Hogan managed to Duck it, but it clipped Lucy’s shoulder. She got back up quickly and aimed the phase cannon at Kura!

“Eat this!” she screamed, firing the cannon. Kura held up the ring hand, and the ball of energy was absorbed. Everyone looked on in amazement.

“Surprised at my power? I had my troops discreetly kill off some random prisoners to give me more strength. This is only a fraction of the power I could wield! I ugh.”

Hogan and Ben had both fired heavy gunshots at Kura behind his back. “You talk to much!” They shouted in unison. Both dropped to the ground as Kura flung balls of fire at them.

“You talk way too much!” Danielle said, firing a swirling bolt of energy at Kura. She strained to keep the energy beam going. Kura struggled under the gravity and the mage’s blast, but he soon recovered and absorbed the blast.

“I tire of your games mortals!” He tossed the ring into the air. It began spinning and firing off all of the energy from the absorbed attacks.

Ryan’s shield could protect him, but the others had to run and dodge. This was getting bad. They needed to work fast to be rid of Kura. No more beating around the bush as they have been for the past four months.

“Eirik! We have to do it now!” Ryan called.

Eirik jumped out of the way of the last volley from the ring. “Got it! Guys, lets hit it! He’s ready!”

“Got it!” Ben and Lucy shouted. Ben pulled out a small device and activated it. The blue chambers on the amplifiers lit up. Lucy maneuvered around to another point, ducking a fireball and hefted up her cannon.

Ryan pulled back and focused, hard. He squinted as hard as he could. He had been the entire battle, but he had yet to be able to see any lay lines. Now, with the amplifiers on, he could sense they were there, he just had to be in the right spot.

Kura was in no mood to allow him to move around freely. As the others fired at Kura, the demon lord focused on Ryan. As Ryan jumped to avoid a fireball, his head suddenly went through a lay line, because suddenly the whole set of lines in the area were visible.

They were everywhere. They criss-crossed in so many different places. Dozens and dozens crossed over at one point. About a dozen crossed over three in one point, or even four or five. And then there was one… right behind Kura, where nine lines intersected, all in one point. Ryan’s eyes lit up.

He rushed around, firing at Kura and ran up to Eirik. Rushing past him, he turned his back to Kura for an instance to flash up his hand, all five fingers up in the air, mouthing the words “five feet behind him.”

Eirik nodded and began to fire at Kura.

As the group rushed around the circle, Eirik and Ryan quickly spread the message, everyone acknowledged.

Ben and Hogan threw lots more shots from their heavy guns at him, tiring him out before Ben threw some explosive yellow shots at him, knocking him a few feet back. However, he was still not in the right spot.

The group continued to try to get him to move back and avoid his myriad of attacks, but he was too strong. Ryan looked around for the best spot for him to be at when the time came.

“That’s it, only one way to get this done,” Eirik sighed, rolling up his sleeve and flexing his robotically enhanced muscles. He holstered his gun and bum rushed Kura. Pulling his fist back, Eirik prepared to knock Kura into place, holding him in necessary.

“Ha, fool,” Kura said quietly. Time seemed to slow down for Eirik as suddenly Kura’s hand lifted up. The ring twirled and spun, then stopped, aimed at Eirik. A wave of energy shot out, and soon Eirik found himself flung through the air and into a tree.

“That is it!! I’m tired of people attacking my boyfriend!” Lucy roared. For a second her eyes flared yellow in the moonlight. She lifted the cannon into the air, and switched off the power-flow control. “Eat this Demon!” Lucy fired the cannon. The barrel shook and convulsed in her hands as shot after shot flew across the clearing, knocking into Kura, slowly pushing him backwards.

Finally, the phase cannon overloaded, and Lucy threw it suddenly, with a great burst of strength, at Kura. It exploded in mid air, part way towards Kura. Robot chirped one last time as the machine ripped apart, sending a shockwave that knocked Lucy to the ground, and knocked Kura the right amount of inches back to the spot Ryan wanted him to be at. Everyone else held up a phase grenade in their hands.

“KURA!” Ryan roared. “Because of you, my life has been turned upside down over and over again! I almost lost one of my best friends. All the people I care about in my world were threatened! And you! You may not have been the one who brought us all here, but you are the one who is here now! You are the cause to my horrible effect. And now-”

The gang through their grenades. They detonated, illuminating the lay lines for one second, verifying where exactly Ryan was. Three lines crossed in front of him.

“And now I turn the world upside down on you!” He stabbed the dagger down into the criss-crossing lines of energy. Focusing his mind, Ryan concentrated on one thought OPEN.

Suddenly, all the lay lines appeared again. Energy streamed around the clearing, arching from one intersection to another to another. Soon, an intriquite web of energy surrounded the group… and all of them gathered in one place…. Kura.

The Demon Lord roared in pain as inside of him, a tear to the phase reality formed. His newly formed body broke apart, its cells being ripped apart, then the molecules, and then the atoms.

All at once, there was a horrible burst of purple light, and a sick sort of laughter as Kura was pulled in.

The ground shook beneath them as the earth itself reacted violently to the tear that had formed by the tree. Ryan strained with all his might with the thought CLOSE! CLOSE DAMMIT CLOSE! Until finally…

Shockwave!! The tear collapsed on itself, and all the pent up energy released itself in an expanding sphere of power that knocked everyone to the ground, unconscious.

Eirik came too first… or he thought he had.

“Are you ready?”

He stretched and moaned and sat up against the tree. Opening his eyes he saw three little girls staring at him. None of them looked older than seven. The one on his left had long red hair, and was in a green dress with a large yellow belt: The perfect summer dress. The one on the right was dressed in a black dress, made of heavy material and had long white hair. The one in the middle, and the one who had talked, was dressed all in white, in a beautiful light dress, like something one would wear to a celebratory church service like Easter or a wedding. Her hair was blonde, and hey eyes were deep blue and pierced Eirik.

“Are you ready to handle the responsibility you have now given yourself?” She asked.

“Are you ready to face the trials you have created?” the one in green asked.

“Are you ready for the path you all have chosen?” The girl dressed for a funeral asked.

“Tell Us: Are You Ready?” They asked in unison. And then everything flashed with a white light, and they were gone.

Thoughts of them soon left Eirik’s head as he pulled himself up to inspect the damage done, and to make sure his friends were all right.

About half an hour later, the group hobbled into the meadow. Dead demons lay everywhere. Three werewolves and some Shoquen roamed the edges of the field. Elves stood watch from the trees. The other doppelgangers, along with Adam, walked up to the Slug Gang.

“Kura?” Adam asked.

“Gone, as planned,” Eirik informed the android.

“Lady Moore?” Shogun asked, sheathing his sword.

“Fled, along with her vamps,” Hogan answered.

“Porter Demons?” Xander inquired.

“We knocked them out good,” Ben replied, “But had vanished by the time we got back.”

“You guys?” Jenna asked, coming down from the trees.

“We lost Robot,” Lucy said.

“And we’re pretty banged up,” Danielle added.

“But I think we’ll make it.” Everyone looked back. Ryan had said it. He had not said anything since they had all regained consciousness. He looked up, eyes hopeful. “Now can we go home?”

Everyone laughed at Ryan, who smiled.

A few days passed…

“So Ryan and you are definitely in the Quad room next year,” Danielle said, recounting what Eirik had missed at class. “And Ben will most likely get in from the waiting list. Robb probably wont, but there is a chance.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t get high enough on the list to make it on campus with us,” Eirik said as he tossed her the keys to his car.

“Yeah, I know, but Jenna and I are going to try and get an apartment together off-campus. And I’ll be around! All my stuff will be in you guys’ quad!” She smiled and hopped into the driver’s seat.

“Ya know?” Lucy said as she and Ben left their Calculus class about an hour later. “I’ve been thinking?”

“About Calculus? Wow!!” Ben said, eyes wide.

“Oh come on, you know I’d never think about that!”

“Yeah, you’re right. So what then?”

“Well, our doubles… right? When we interact with them, we become partially like them. You picked up your technological skills from BomBen, Eirik became a robot from his double. So why didn’t our doubles pick up anything from us?”

“Hey, you’re right! I bet they should have picked up something from us! But of course… I doubt we’d be able to tell!”

Flash back to after the big battle as the doppel-gang returned to Cowell.

“Why do I have the sudden urge to start up a club for people who like to analyze language structures?” Xander asked one of the Shoquen as they descended the hill to the nearest tunnel entrance.

“And those Bird Demons?” Lucy-wolf said, still in her wolf form, “How CUTE were they!”

“Oh I know, I know!” Jenna elf laughed. “I wanted to just take one home with me! Of course the elves would never allow it, right Shogun?”

“Man… I haven’t slept in days and I feel…. Amazing!”

The whole mess of people laughed. Though they had all been strangers a few nights ago, they had now grown closer and were almost… friends!

“God, this is going to sound so dumb… but there is this question that has been bugging me for months now!”

“What is it BomBen?” Jenna asked.

“If somebody changed the English language around drastically, getting rid of unnecessary letter… you could change the word knife a lot…. But then….”

“Yeah?”

“How would you spell ‘nif’ ?”

The group all looked at him funny, then decided it was another one of his insane tangents and continued talking amongst themselves.

Flashback to the present.

“Hey guys! Come quick! Come quick! The egg is hatching!!” Danielle said, bursting into Ben’s room. Lucy, Ben, and Robb all sat up immediately and rushed into the next room with her.

“Let me see, Let me see!” Lucy said, trying to get a better look.

“Hold on, Hold on, we’ll all get a chance!” Alex said, trying to keep from being knocked over.

“Woah, everyone step back!” Ryan said, pushing the crowd of people which included Ben, Danielle, Lucy, Eirik, Alex, and Robb back from his bed.

He had moved the nest there once the egg had begun to shake and crack. Slowly, small pieces broke loose and fell onto the comforter. Soon, the bedspread was covered in eggshells.

Only two pieces remained, one covering the creature’s head, the other that it was sitting in. It turned over and stretched its wings. Then, shaking its head, it knocked the eggshell off.

“Oh my god! It’s a cute little dragon!!!” Danielle chirped looking at it.

Sitting in the nest was a small reptilian like creature, blue-green in color. It stood about a foot and a half tall when it stood on two feet stretching, but it soon collapsed. It could stand on its hind legs, but had poor balance, and so it leaned forward and used its arms as an extra pair of legs to balance itself. The wings folded own and lay on top of the arms. Its tail swooshed back and forth as it looked around the group with its big sky blue eyes. It blinked a few times as it focused in on Ryan. Smiling, it leapt up into Ryan’s arms and began to make an array of happy noises.

“Oh!! It’s a little baby!!” Lucy cooed. “What are you going to name it?!!”

“I- I don’t know! I didn’t think it would attach itself to me!”

“I think you should call it Baby!” Danielle put in. “Baby is such a cute name!”

“Oh yeah, and how well will that fit when this thing gets to be bigger than your house?” Eirik teased.

“Baby is a good name.”

“Drake!” Ryan answered. “It’s kinda like Draco, which means Dragon… but… it fits! He also does look almost duck like… well, no not really, but.”

“I think Drake is a good name for the lil fella!” Alex said. The others agreed, although Danielle still thought it should be named Baby.

Final Week Soon Came. Ryan didn’t have much work to do that week, and he was glad for it. It gave him a chance to pack up his stuff in piece while the others rushed around studying.

But something was missing, he thought as he looked out the window onto the quad from his desk. People were out there again, basking in the sun, talking on cell-phones, and yelling up at people on higher floors. Life as usual. They had all been saved from disaster when the Slug Gang defeated Kura. They were also protected from further threat when Ryan sealed the tear with his doppeled abilities. Now all his Slug Gear was at the bottom of a box ready to go into storage back home.

Ryan looked down at his bed. Drake was curled up, asleep, on Ryan’s pillow. The little dragon was proving to be a lot of fun, and helped to lift Ryan’s spirits. And he had proven remarkably smart and able to learn not to breath fire, and where and where not to go to the bathroom, and ate almost anything (although he loved dining hall desserts).

Looking down at the dragon, Ryan suddenly got inspired. He opened up a new word processing document on his computer.

SlugFest Episode 1: “Go For the Eyes” Ryan wrote. Orange Vested Traffic Workers Direct the Cars. Badged Preceptors shake hands and welcome new students to the residence Halls. One such new student approaches his door.

Nothing was missing anymore.

END Episode 9

END SEASON ONE.