Though darkness had taken over dusk, in the hustle and bustle of New York there was far too much light for Vanessa’s tastes. Lampwicke’s hotel building wasn’t exactly in the middle of Times Square, but it wasn’t isolated either. In Midtown, it would be a tad suspicious if eight unfamiliar teenagers suddenly showed up and started walking into it. So Nigel had her weave her magics over them, disguising them as a cleaning crew. Ethan’s magic had located the service entrance, and the security guard nodded as they passed through, Vanessa eyeing the camera nervously. She began muttering, covering the group in a special field that would allow them to pass unobserved by electronic devices. She’d done all this before, but this time she knew there were observers watching very carefully.

“So we have to make it to the top floor, right?” Amy said, pushing an imaginary cart. She always felt weirded out when she didn’t match Vanessa’s pace and her hands sunk through what her eyes told her was a solid object. “Is ID going to be a problem?”

“Just leave that to me.” Matt said, winking. He muttered something incomprehensible and touched her hand, morphing into a perfect copy of her. “I get his DNA, and I’m him. Any touch screens or retinal scanners fall before my skill.” Amy sighed.

“And if it needs a keycard, like all other hotels?” Matt froze, grinning.

“Heh. I’ll deal with it somehow!”

“While I’d prefer not to break and enter, we do have that option as a last resort. Although it’s best if no one knew we were here.” Nigel said, and Vanessa winced as her heart tugged. “Something wrong?” he asked her innocently.

“No, just trying to keep everyone’s disguises on while blacking out cameras is hard.” she said.

“I believe in you, Vanessa. You’ve done this before, you can do it now.” Amy said, comfortingly nudging her. She nodded and gave a brittle smile.

“There’s a private elevator on the next right. It goes straight to the penthouse.” Ethan said suddenly, receiving another vision. His eyes stopped undulating, and he mechanically popped another pill of Taboo and fell silent. The others regarded him nervously. While his blessing of clairvoyance was a serious boon, the kid was twitchy and…unpredictable. He’d proven prone to nervous tics, sullen silence, and aberrant behavior. Nigel believed it was because his mind was receiving information from different times and places than his current one.

“Right. Yun, Jason, I’d like you to stay down here and guard the elevator, make sure no one gets on or off save us. We’ll call you if we need backup, but I doubt that’ll happen.” Nigel said, assessing the situation. The two teens shared a glance and nodded.

“Roger, boss.” Yun said, grinning.

“We will not let you down.” Jason added, eyeing up the lobby. So many potential materials…

“Good. Everyone else, let’s make this quick and quiet.” They all piled into the elevator. Vanessa was silent, hands in her pockets, playing with her phone. It was hard to concentrate on the disguises while sending Cross the signal text.

The doors dinged open, and they came to the lavishly decorated doors to the penthouse. The glass beyond the fleur-de-lies showed it was dark inside. It was only going on ten, so Lampwicke was probably out. It looked like Luke’s skills wouldn’t be necessary. Nigel saw the keycard lock, and nodded to Amy.

“Looks like I’m up. Lzensktivos, avtagafda. Lzensktivos, avtagafda suhm. Lzensktivos, avtagafda.” She placed her hand on the door, muttering incantations. Her will slid into the electronic lock, her eyes closed as she created the correct electromagnetic frequency. With a ping, the lock disengaged and Nigel opened the door, holding a finger to his lips.

They entered quietly, fanning out and turning on flashlights to search for the amulet. Vanessa shivered. This was it, it was almost time. She silently slid into a corner.

“Here it is.” Nigel whispered, gathering the others around the case. The amulet was a strange dark metal, holding a brilliant dark amber gem inside, nearly as big as a fist. “Amy, would you take care of the alarm?”

“Sure thing.” She began muttering, reaching out her hand, when Ethan suddenly grabbed it, his eyes rolling back in his head.

“N-No, this is a fake. I can see the real one hidden in a safe on the first floor. We’ve walked into a trap.” There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at him, including the hidden observers.

“Freeze! You’re under arrest!” Cross proclaimed, coming out of the kitchen.

“They brought a goddamn psychic to an ambush!” Bess said, her and Leo bursting out of a closet.

“What’s going on? Who are these people!?” Nigel shouted, he and the team jumping into a circle, back to back as the lights turned on. He stared in horror at the five figures dropping down from the ceiling, four all in black, one girl pale as paper.

“Just surrender quietly, and no one has to get hurt.” Amber said sternly.

“Please raise your hands and make no sudden movements or incantations.” Leo added, pointing his flaming sword at them. The Third Eye group were glancing and shifting around nervously, but Nigel had noticed one of his team wasn’t with them. He stared at Vanessa in the corner, aghast.

“Y-You?” She looked up at him, eyes moist.

“I, I’m sorry, Nigel. But who-what I was turning into, wasn’t someone I wanted to be. And it doesn’t have to be you either! I don’t want to hurt anybody, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen if Delacroix gets what he wants! I found myself attacking my sister! We can’t let this go on! Please, we have to stop this, before it’s too late!”

He was focused only on her, gaping like a fish. He swallowed, hard, and closed his eyes, silently weeping. He opened them, bulging with rage, and regarded her coldly.

“You-you traitorous bitch. You’ll die like a dog with the rest of them. Ta’esh!” he shouted, a blindingly fierce wind pushing out form him, blowing everyone over.

“The hell!?” Cross said, rising to a knee and firing at the leader, but Nigel was at the center of a localized maelstrom. The bullets were caught by the tempestuous winds and swirled around him as he rose, chanting sorrowfully as his eyes glowed teal.

“Scatter!” Amy cried, the Third Eye team taking advantage of the confusion. “Exgebah!” She magnetically grabbed a stool and hurled it at one of the black figures, intending to bowl him over and escape. He caught it and dropped it to the ground, his eyes glowing a bright bloody red.

“Gonna have to do better than that.” Will taunted, his fangs sliding out.

“Villains! You won’t escape!” Kevin declared proudly, his fangs exposed as well.

“The hell’s going on?” Luke muttered desperately, ducking behind the couch as the battle was on. He worked quickly, sketching a magic circle on the floor in marker. “Vampires? Freaking vampires are real!?” It would be hard to drop so many into the dream realm at once, but he had to try. He just had to hope it would still work on freaking vampires! But he needn’t have worried; a fiery sword came down between his hands to crack the floor, disrupting the spell. He looked up to see a frowning Leo. “Uh…” Without a word, Leo swung a knee into his head, knocking him out.

The Third Eye team scurried and struggled to avoid the assailants and arrest. Matt had disappeared, and there were two Gregors running around. The team had been mostly chosen for infiltration, not a stand-up fight, and Cross’s group would have won already had it not been for Nigel liberally blasting wind at them from the center of his own personal tornado. He shot a line of air so focused it was like a blade at Bess, but Will pulled her behind a chair in time, the wind pressure cutting through a reinforced glass case to shred the sculpture inside.

“Ooh, that sounded expensive.” Will winced. “You know this magic crap, right? Any ideas how to stop this guy?” he asked her. Bess peeked over the chair at the embodiment of elemental fury, and shook her head.

“My specialty is creating semi-independent creatures and augmentations, but he could just blow them all away and cut through anything I could make with ease. Any fire I set’ll be extinguished soon as I make it, and a shield spell’s stationary, I can’t use it to get closer to him.” Will glanced at Nigel, blasting away at the rest of the vampires, expressionless.

“So you’re saying if you get close you can still shield against the wind?” he asked.

“Yeah!” she yelped, ducking as a table crashed into the wall behind them. Will looked at Nigel again, swore, and nodded.

“Alright. Hold on!”

“Wait, what’re you-” She screamed as she was picked up and he leapt over the chair, cradled in his arms as he dodged and weaved past the flying debris and wind strikes. Nigel sent a cutting blast of air at them, but the vampire ducked and rolled to the ground, not five feet away from the tornado.

“Now!”

“Swvah!” The air in front of them suddenly died, causing Nigel to wobble.

“Sesn’arasosh, evchka-snaghth, sesn’arasosh, evchka-snaghth, sesn’arasosh, evchka-snaghth.” he chanted, regaining control. He flung his arms out and let out a whoosh that knocked the others away, even interfering with the gravity webs Amber was trying to wrap him in. He loomed over the shield protecting the cowering vampire and desperately straining witch.

“That was not a good idea.” he said calmly.

“What’s the plan!?” Bess screeched, and Will grinned sardonically.

“This.” His mouth suddenly elongated and lashed out, around the shield to the eye of Hurricane Nigel. It latched onto his astonished leg and pulled him screaming to the floor. As his concentration shattered, the whirling winds died, the debris clattering to the floor.

All in all, Genevieve had Amy in an armbar, Leo was standing over Luke with his blade drawn, Ethan was on the ground, Cross kneeling over him, and Amber had the fake Gregor webbed up as Kevin zipped over to help Will hold Nigel down, preventing him from casting again. Will noticed Bess staring at him.

“Yeah, I’m part flea.” he said, as if that was all the explanation needed.

“What is wrong with you people!?” Bess shouted.

While this was going on, Nigel’s eyes met Vanessa’s, sad and tear-streaked. He tried to keep struggling, but as they looked at each other his movements died. Tears fell from his eyes too.

“Is that it? Did we get all of them?” Cross said, cuffing Ethan.

“There’s two more downstairs.” Vanessa said, unable to tear her eyes away from Nigel. Amber sighed, then noticed the captured Gregor managing to pull free of her gravity webs, impossible for a human.

“I’m real! Grab him!” he cried in accented English and pointed at the other Gregor, hanging up his cell phone.

“And our backup has their hands on the real amulet right now.” the Gregor said, no trace of a European accent, a rictus on his face. The building began rumbling.

“W-What’s going on?” Cross said. There was a huge tremor, then a boom, and amid a cloud of plaster and glass a colossal, screeching, orange, yellow, and black centipede burst out from the hotel. It hissed at the screaming crowd, then crawled up the building to glare into the window with enormous, baleful red eyes.

“Holy mother of f-” Will was cut off by a leg scything through the wall. The vampires, Amber, and Leo managed to grab their captives and teammates and jump away in time, but an entire wall was just…gone.

“Good evening. I’m here to let you know that you’re all going to die. Oh, not you guys though.” the centipede said, talking to the Third Eye team. Vanessa reeled in shock, recognizing the voice.

“That’s Yun!” she screamed.

“They weren’t kidding when they said he was a heavy hitter.” Matt said, dropping his Gregor disguise.

“Shoot him! Shoot him now!” Cross yelled into her radio, and the other agents opened fire with rifles from sniping positions on other buildings. The penthouse had been too crowded and chaotic to get a clear shot before, but now they couldn’t miss. The centipede rumbled with laughter.

“Like rocks on a tank.” he said as the bullets plinked off his exoskeleton. He reached his neck in and stared biting at Cross and the others.

“Back! Get back!” Leo shouted, waving his sword in Yun’s face.

“Worthless.” the bug taunted, parrying with his mandibles. “Jason already have the amulet. Let them go or die slowly.” Leo smiled grimly.

“I’d prefer not to go at all, thanks. Ha!” He slapped the flat of the blade against Yun’s slavering jaws, rolling to the floor. He sprang up quick as a whip, impaling his sword to the hilt in the black carapace. “Ignite!” Yun howled as Leo’s sword blazed, the quarterback cutting and burning as he ran a line through the underside of his body. The centipede tossed and jerked violently, throwing Leo free and smashing the penthouse even more. Amber caught Leo before he hit anything, but Yun was bleeding and blinded with rage now.

“Haaaugh!” He started spitting globs of acidic saliva at them, not even caring he was supposed to be rescuing half of the people in front of him. Bess was forced to the front.

“Swvah!” The deadly loogie splattered on the shield, and everyone dove behind her.

“Yun! Watch it! Stop!” Amy cried.

“Screeeeee!” Yun kept firing, pissed beyond reason. That blade had hurt him worse than he thought anything even could anymore. He was determined to melt every single living thing in his path now. Bess groaned under the strain of having to hold the shield this long.

“Retreat! Retreat!” Cross shouted, but the walls started to crack as the centipede wrapped his body around the penthouse and began to squeeze, crushing everything. “No!”

“We’re not gonna make it!” Will cried.

“No, we have to-” It was then Genevieve noticed that Kevin was nowhere to be seen.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” A black-clad figure broke through the ceiling, smashing a kick into the centipede’s face that blasted him back, waving dazed in the air. The figure landed, cape whirling, and turned to them, burning red eyes in a black mask over a pure white slash of a fang on his chest. Genevieve sighed.

“Hurry! That won’t keep him long!” Nightfang sprang to the door, shattering it with his vampiric strength and forcing the elevator door open.

“What’s going on!” Bess demanded as they hustled into the hall, Yun undulating in rage behind them.

“That’s Kevin, he’s kind of a superhero.” Amber said absently as she smashed out the elevator floor. It would be too slow to get away, rappelling down on gravity webs would be faster.

“Why am I the normal one!?” Bess cried, fed up. All the vampires suddenly looked to the right, hearing something very faint.

“Incoming!” Gregor cried as Nightfang leapt to intercept the jaws bursting through the wall.

“Hurry!” he grunted, straining to hold the pincers apart.

“You heard him, let’s-” Matt was about to descend on a web, but another section of Yun’s body broke through the shaft below. “Oh come on!” he cried as they backed off. “How big is he!?”

“Go!” They ran back to the penthouse, with the gaping hole in the side of the building. Cross stared at it, making a snap judgement. “Only one choice. Vamps, catch! Everyone! Jump!” she yelled, sailing over the broken wall into the night sky.

“Wait!” Amber said, but Yun’s head broke through the wall, screaming in Mandarin. “Go!” Screaming and flailing, they all jumped out. It was up to Amber and the vampires now. She casted gravity webs to snag them, gathering them all in a bundle while the vampires dove beneath to catch the group, to absorb the impact with their legs. Nightfang grimaced, reminded of the death of Gwen Stacy; it was too much, if they hit this hard it wouldn’t matter if the humans were caught, the force would snap them apart. But what choice did they have?

“Ta’esh!” A blast of wind shot down to the ground, slowing their descent. Amber looked at Nigel, stoically suppressing the speed as they landed hard, but not catastrophically.

“Nigel…thank you.” Vanessa said.

“I wasn’t doing it for you. I had to save my team.” he replied, turning away from her. Vanessa, crying again but unwavering from her choice, looked away too.

“Look out!” Cross hustled them across the street, away from the falling pieces of building as Yun rampaged. The assembled crowd was shouting and panicking, the sleeping residents of the city awakening to watch the giant monster thrash around.

“So…what’s the plan, fearless leader?” Will asked Nightfang nervously. The superhero took in the captured group, the chaotic crowd, the giant centipede, and in the distance the now dark Metatech Pharmaceutical building.

“We have to keep these guys under guard, intercept this Jason, and stop that monster from wrecking the city.” he said, going over the objectives.

“Let’s make it easy. Vanessa, Leo and I will go after Metatech, you guys and Amber stop that thing. That’s a superhero’s job, right?” Cross said with a sarcastic grin. She turned to the third Eye group, cuffing Nigel, who didn’t resist. “Get the hell out of here. I don’t care about the rest of you, you’re now officially too small to worry about. Stay out of trouble, if I see you mixed up in this again I won’t bother with procedure, got it?” Not needing to be told twice, the remaining Third Eye team sprinted off, eager to be as far away from this mess as possible. But before he left, Ethan suddenly turned around, twitching and eyes rolling.

“I see…darkness. A great evil will cover everything in black, and laugh. Land will rise and seas will boil, the inexorable chaos destroying all you hold dear. You will die if nothing is done. A great evil will rise. Rejoice in madness.”

“What?” With that cryptic message, the teen ran off, and Cross had literally bigger fish to fry. “C’mon, let’s move.” Commandeering an empty vehicle, leaving Amber and the others to deal with the bug.

“What do you think that’s about?” Leo asked nervously as they sped off, narrowly avoiding the people in the streets.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. He’s full of it, and I saw this movie before. Of course something bad’s gonna come up. We’ll kill it like every other time.” she said, determined to believe it.

Back at the hotel, the centipede roared and reached out to grab onto another building, destroying things randomly. He had gone totally berserk.

“I can’t make gravity webs strong enough to hold this one.” Amber said, raising her hands. Oh, if only the rest of the uylata were with her! “We’re gonna need to weaken him before I can web him up.” Beneath his mask, Nightfang grinned.

“This’s completely impossible. Good thing heroes do just that! Forward! We’ll surround him on the rooftops and take him down from there!” The vampires crawled up the skyscrapers, Amber hauled herself up with a web, and with a swirl of his cape Nightfang launched himself into the air, determined to save the day.