Zeke’s veiny whips weren’t a match for Kian’s bacterial sword.

With every attack he made, Kian sliced the veins quickly, forcing Zeke to extend them again. The glass airport rooftop they fought on was littered with pieces of red and blue veins looking like candy licorice.

Throughout the fight, Zeke could feel his body going through an exhausting cycle of contracting an ailment and then healing. Kian’s swings of the diseased blade sent a colony of dangerous bacteria onto Zeke to wreak havoc. Rashes would come and go, muscle cramps would form on one area of his body and then vanish, and the desire to vomit would arise and then subside.

Zeke’s Healer’s Garb strenuous effort of healing him repeatedly was draining him of his Mana. Slowing down his movements and his mind.

He took a cut to the cheek and flesh-eating bacteria had their way with his skin, peeling off almost the entirety of that side of his face. Zeke doubled over and hovered his hand over his missing cheek, being careful to not touch the exposed muscle.

Then Kian charged at him, stretching his sword back with the tip facing forward for a devastating pierce attack.

The blade ate through his flesh.

Zeke groaned loudly and looked over his shoulder, seeing half of the diseased blade sticking out of his back. Blood dripped from the front of his chest as the sharp pain became more uncomfortable; just a few more inches and his heart would’ve looked like the Immaculate Heart of Mary tattoo.

Luckily, surgery wasn’t Kian’s specialty.

Kian pushed the sword further, making Zeke clench his jaw, enduring the agony. In a last-ditch effort, Zeke focused with the bit of energy he had left, and multiple threads of red and blue extended from the bleeding puncture in his chest and wrapped around Kian’s arms.

Just like the blade fixed through Zeke’s chest, Kian was trapped as the threads continued to wrap themselves down to his legs. He tried to push away but with no luck, getting visibly frustrated.

Not letting the opportunity waste, Zeke allowed the veins to wrap around his body. He expanded in mass until he became a giant ball of veins. Kian’s arms and legs were entangled in the bundle of red and blue… tagging him along for an unsolicited, painful ride.

While in the form of a giant ball made of veins, Zeke rolled forward, gaining speed as he traveled down the slope of the glass roof, crushing Kian under the clump of red and blue.

For the final spectacle, the ball launched itself in the air and came crashing down with a screaming Kian entwined to the bottom.

After one bone-crushing bounce, the ball was untwined, and Zeke was flung into the air (the bacterial sword flew in the opposite direction), landing many feet away from where Kian did.

Vesklepios disappeared on its own. Zeke was running on fumes. The only Mana he had left was keeping him adhered to the glass roof.

The silence that followed lasted for almost 10 minutes before Kian got back up, ready for more.

“You’ve wasted all your Mana,” Kian said and then scoffed. “You’re new to this, while I have been using magic for years. There’s no way you can win, Rosario.”

Zeke pushed one hand against the surface, and it was like he was back in middle school gym class, unable to do a single push-up. The muscles in his arms were tightened, feeling like they intertwined into hundreds of tiny knots. He got up just a few inches before smashing his chin onto the glass.

Kian removed his plague mask, showing his disgusting, patchy mouth, and reached out his gloved hand. “I have to do what must be done—”

A streak of blue lightning sliced his arm away in a flash.

Zeke’s and Kian’s eyes followed the severed arm as it spun in the air to the side alongside a windborne swathed knife.

There was no blood. The arm was cleaved so cleanly it didn’t look like it was cut at all, but instead just detached as if he were a mannequin.

Flying into the battlefield was Ugo, armored in his Healer’s Garb. He had his hand stretched forward with electric blue trickling all over him.

“Mora!” Zeke shouted with a smile.

Disaster struck as Kian blasted Ugo away with a well-timed beam of purple slime.

“No!”

But there was no need for distress; more of the cavalry were on their way.

Akachi shot up from the glass roof in his tribal Healer’s Garb. He was covered with a loincloth, pieces of bone, and red feathered armor on his shoulders and legs. On his head was a huge goat skull headdress with bright green mist flowing from his eyes.

As Akachi nosedived toward Kian he pulled back his symbol-marked fist and gave the Infectiologist the meanest right hook Zeke had ever seen in his life.

A gust of wind exploded as the knuckles connected with the cheekbone. Kian blew back and rolled back onto his feet. He stood shakily and had trouble keeping his eyes open.

The last of the cavalry arrived gracefully as she flipped out from the glass roof and landed on Akachi’s shoulders. Even with her voluptuous figure, Ashlin looked weightless, standing on his shoulders. She was clad in her Healer’s Garb. It was an onyx black low-cut corset dress with cyan blue ribbon bows tied down her sleeves. A massive pointed hat, cyan blue on the inside, bigger than her entire body, hovered a few inches over her head, and a black lace mask covered the bottom half of her face.

They were all in the astral plane, just like Zeke.

Akachi glanced at Zeke and then at Ugo (shaking off Kian’s microbes from his Garb). “Why don’t you kiddos sit this one out and let the adults handle this, okay?”

In the nick of time, Ashlin leaped forward and kicked Kian right up the chin just as he was about to attack.

Ashlin landed and said, “Enough talking, Akachi.”

“Da!” Akachi said with a smile and charged at Kian with his tag partner.

Zeke had a front-row seat to a battle amongst true warriors. A grand display of a mix of martial arts and magic.

Being outnumbered and only with one arm, Kian never stood a chance. He was taking magic blasts and Mana-enhanced kicks all over and, at one point, was being pummeled with fists left and right by the merciless duo.

Ashlin backed away from the fight (in reality, it was more a beatdown than a fight), grabbed the brim of her giant witch hat, and flipped it over—a multi-armed monster climbed out of the hat. The abomination was a pale bulky, shirtless man with six arms lined down each side, two jutting off his chest and four more off his back.

Zeke did his best to keep his eyes away from Ashlin’s monster as it rushed toward Kian. It grabbed hold of the Infectiologist, pinning him to the ground.

“Now buy me some time!” Ashlin shouted at Akachi as she pulled a long witch’s staff out from her hat with a blue orb on top.

“How about a please?” Akachi shouted back as he summoned his crooked staff.

“How about you just shut up and do as I say.”

“You’re lucky you’re hot like me!”

Zeke groaned and rolled his eyes as Ashlin got started on a spell.

With the pointy end of his staff topped with a green skull and fashioned with wine-red feathers, Akachi drew a magic circle on the glass and pushed his hand down on it.

It glowed, and then a skeletal multi-horned rhinoceros leaped from the circle. Ashlin’s monster lifted Kian up to his feet and disappeared just in time for the rhino to ram into him and then fracture into pieces.

Akachi reached out his hands with an open palm and then clapped them together. The bony pieces lodged into Kian and morphed into large cuffs that bound his arms together.

“Ashlin, finish him off!”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Ashlin barked back for a moment and resumed her incantation while making hand signs.

Akachi gave her a blank look. “But you were going to anyway—”

“Shut up!” she screamed in Russian and unleashed her spell. As cyan blue energy blasted up from her hat, a doll-faced woman with blushed cheeks jumped out. Her body was shaped like a bowling pin.

When Kian saw the summon, he began to fret. “No! No! No!”

The woman hopped up to Kian while singing quietly in Russian. Then, the top half of her body twisted… and popped off.

A sucking sound was made as Kian was pulled into the lower half of the woman’s bizarre body. The top part was reattached, and the woman started humming and then shrank to the size of a mouse.

Ashlin strutted up to the woman and picked her up—she was now a matryoshka doll.

As Zeke gaped at the sight, Akachi sauntered up to him and sank to his haunches. “Entering the astral plane, holding off the goth bastard on your own, and still with enough Mana preserved to keep yourself from falling through the roof .” He ruffled his hair. “Well done, Shortstack!”

Zeke’s eyes returned to Ashlin as she tossed the matryoshka doll back into the hat.

Ugo approached Zeke and Akachi. “You okay, Mano?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Good. We were able to get up here thanks to all those veins you left down at the airport,” Ugo said. “Looks like things got real crazy, huh?”

Zeke allowed himself a chuckle before letting out a sigh of relief as Akachi and Ugo called off their Healer’s Garbs.

Sirens blared from a distance.

“We gotta work fast to clean up Kian’s mess,” Zeke said.

“Ashlin and Akachi already got rid of the mushrooms,” Ugo said.

“Were you able to save the dog?”

“No,” Ashlin responded brusquely, “but it’ll still be of use.”

The group of four climbed down the side of the airport roof and reentered the terminal.

Luggage littered the floor, and people were still crowding the area, all confused and distressed. Flustered civilians rambled to officers who scratched their heads as they stared back, puzzled.

The gang’s bodies (Zeke’s body was still grasping onto his doctor’s bag), including the dog, now in its normal form and mushroom-free, were flattened across the floor. Airport personnel gathered around them, reporting to their communication devices.

“Where’s Koshiko?” Akachi asked.

Zeke made a face and scratched the back of his head. “She’s… well, she should be near here, but she’s not exactly herself.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’ll see.”

Ashlin extended her hands, and multiple thin threads zipped from her fingers and attached themselves to Ugo’s, Kian’s, Shadow’s, and her own body.

What followed was a horrific display of puppeteering. To the crowd’s astonishment and terror, the bodies stood up and opened their eyes. She made the bodies smile and wave, and the dog wag its tail.

“I can get the dog to help us find the last carrier using the little essence it has left in its Container.” She said and then looked over at Ugo. “You’ll help me.”

“Yes, ma’am!” he said, making a goofy salute.

They looked freaky at first, but eventually, Ashlin’s puppets began to stride more naturally.

Akachi clapped Zeke on the shoulder and signaled him for them to get started. They jumped back into their bodies, ignoring the protests of the people around them, and searched for Aida.

Zeke put Wade’s pouch of magic sand into Ugo’s pocket as the body was puppeteered out of the place and then focused on the search for Aida alongside Akachi.

They found her in the bathroom, face down in a toilet bowl, drinking the water. Zeke stared in horror and embarrassment as Akachi took several photos while laughing hysterically.

There wasn’t much the gang could do about the travelers’ and airport personnel’s mental trauma before leaving. The place had already been cleaned up nicely with magic. All they could do was hope for the best when the witnesses returned home and shared the story with their families, friends, and therapists.

Worst case scenario, people think it was a terrorist attack using a new bioweapon.

News stations were going to be really interesting that night.

The group returned to Yaalon’s clinic, all back in their corporeal forms. Ashlin puppeteered Kian’s lifeless body (missing an arm) and carrier #8 through the door and over to some seats in the room.

Wade was rotating a conical flask in his hand, and blue liquid swirled inside.

“Are you working on a cure?” Zeke said excitedly, bouncing up to him.

“What?” Wade responded, looking back, confused. “This is Mermaid Crystal.” He guzzled the entire thing. “Gives a wicked buzz.”

Zeke sighed in disappointment.

A growl from behind made Zeke turn back, and he saw Aida chewing onto a chair leg.

“Aida! No! You’re going to mess up your teeth!”

“Whoaaaaa, that looks fun,” Wade said, staring wide-eyed at Aida. “I want a triple dosage of whatever you gave her.”

“Violet did something to her brain,” Zeke explained. “Does anybody here have any idea on how to reverse it?”

“If it’s one of Violet’s mind spells we’re talking about, then it’s out of our wheelhouse,” Akachi said.

Ashlin stared at Aida and leaned against a desk. “I say this mental state suits her.”

“Where’s the dog?” Wade asked, pulling his chewed pen from his lab coat pocket.

“It’s dead,” Ashlin said coldly. “Once I used up all that the Container was good for, I disintegrated it.”

“Jeez.”

“Well, it is now in doggie Heaven, right?” Ugo said with a nervous smile.

“It was a demon!” Ashlin rasped. “When a demon’s soul perishes… it’s just… gone.”

“As in… nobody knows where it ends up,” Zeke said.

“A real tearjerker, isn’t it?” Ashlin said and faked a pout. “It was such a beautiful, smart puppy—”

“There’s no need to be sarcastic about it,” Zeke interrupted.

Ashlin froze, staring at Zeke as she tilted her head to the side. “Did you just interrupt me…?”

Akachi put a hand on her shoulder. “How about you kill him after we solve this, huh?”

She shrugged his hand off his shoulder and gave him a scowl. “Don’t touch me.”

“How did you guys find me?” Zeke asked.

“When a soul leaves their Container before it’s their time, or in simpler words, when someone enters the astral plane to screw around. Ashlin can sense that and transport to the area instantly like a secret backdoor,” Akachi explained. “The goth moron must’ve forgotten about her being the freakin’ Container Specialist.”

Wade poked at Kian’s cheek with his pen. “I take Ashlin trapped his soul somewhere? I can’t sense anything from his Container.”

Aida started gnawing on Kian’s pant leg.

Ashlin produced the matryoshka doll and placed it on the desk. “I hate having to use my new model on him, but whatever.”

“So, do we interrogate Kian now?” Ugo asked. “Force him to tell us a cure?”

“He isn’t going to tell us anything,” Akachi said. “You can’t get through crazy.”

“Kian said he didn’t kill Yaalon,” Zeke revealed.

Everybody looked at him.

“So, what?” Akachi said. “He’s lying.”

“If he admitted to spreading his disease, then why would he lie about killing Yaalon?” Zeke defended. “It doesn’t make any sense!”

“We need to focus on a vaccine for now,” Ashlin said. “Worry about that later. Let’s take the carrier downstairs with the others.”

They all summoned their Healer’s Garb.

Zeke looked over at Wade. “Aren’t you going to summon your Garb? We should have as much magical defense as possible.”

Wade pointed at his dirty lab coat. “This is my Healer’s Garb.”

Zeke’s expression went blank. “Huh…?” He paused for a while and then asked. “Then where is your mask?”

Wade patted his pockets and then dug out a balled-up blue surgical mask. “Righty here!” he said and put on the wrinkled covering. “Let’s go.”

Leaving Aida behind to play with Kian’s pant leg, Akachi carried the snoring eighth carrier downstairs to the basement while being accompanied by the others.

Zeke opened the door, and Akachi crept around the room of sleeping carriers. He gently put him down on the bed and turned back to the door.

At that moment, a carrier woke up.

Carrier #2, the work-from-home dad. He arose and immediately became cranky, remembering his abduction. He stomped up to them with an admonitory finger, screaming in Swiss German.

“Now your sand isn’t effective anymore?” Ashlin said, looking over at Wade. “That was the only thing you were good at.”

Wade pulled down his mask and chewed onto the cap of his pen. “My sand is effective. Kian’s specimen… negated its effects. Which means…”

“Shit,” Akachi said on behalf of everybody.

As the other Carriers started waking up, #2 staggered back.

“Are you okay, sir?” Zeke stupidly asked in English.

And then it happened.

Carrier #2’s face bubbled and stretched randomly at the ends and then pushed in and out. The transformation aggravated as his screams got louder.

It started with his ear. It slid down and settled under his chin. His face rotated, making squishy and crunching sounds as everything was rearranged. His eyes were on his cheek, mouth right under his hairline, nose down south, and eyebrows on either side of his face.

The carrier screamed for help as he writhed on his feet, and the gang just stood and stared.

“What the hell is happening?” Ugo asked.

Wade grabbed the pen from his mouth. “Kian’s specimen is evolving.”