by Dean Lorey
“What’s going on here?” Director Drake asked.
“I’m wondering the same dang thing.”
Charlie stood up. “I think I can explain. Pinch—I mean, Edward—drank some of the Hydra milk that we used to save the Guardian.”
“I was testing it, you understand,” Pinch explained. “We couldn’t very well expose the creature to an unknown elixir without knowing if it was safe, could we?”
Charlie thought about calling Pinch on his heavy-handed twisting of the truth. After all, the boy (man!) had clearly been much more interested in regaining his former glory than in keeping the Guardian safe, but Charlie let it slide.
“Basically,” Charlie continued, “the elixir returned Pinch—Edward, I mean—to when he was most powerful. Back to when he was a Double-Threat.”
“It’s not possible,” Director Drake said, shaking his head. “Do you actually mean that this boy—man, I suppose—has regained the use of the Gift even after my predecessor at the Division ordered it surgically removed for the safety and security of all mankind?”
“Yes,” Pinch replied dryly. “My Gift has returned. Perhaps you would like to try to have me Reduced once again—for the safety and security of all mankind, of course?”
“I would like that very much. It is bad enough that we have two Double-Threats running around, causing all manner of chaos. The thought of a third is positively mind-boggling. Reduction is a necessity!”
“That’s not going to happen.” Charlie walked up to stand next to Pinch. “I won’t let it.”
“See how they all stick together? They think they’re a race unto themselves, don’t they? No law applies to them. After all, they’re Double-Threats: better, stronger, smarter than the rest of us!”
“That’s not true!” Charlie turned to appeal to the people around him. “Look, I know I’ve done things that everyone wishes I hadn’t—I wish the same thing—but none of it was done out of meanness or ego—”
“We know that,” Drake interrupted. “And it doesn’t matter. No one is accusing you of intentionally doing these terrible things you do. You didn’t mean to bring Barakkas to our world and you surely didn’t mean to bring Slagguron, either. But the fact is, you did. You did, Mr. Benjamin. And now the rest of us must clean up your unholy mess.”
Charlie was desperate to reply. I tried to help people, he wanted to scream. My parents, my friends, a lost kid in the Nether—how could that be wrong?
But what if it was?
Is it enough to have good intentions if they result in something horrible? The question raised a terrible doubt in Charlie that silenced him completely.
“As you all might recall,” Drake continued, “I originally ordered Mr. Benjamin Reduced, but Headmaster Brazenhope strongly disagreed. She used her position and the respect she commands as Headmaster to protect him. Why? It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. She, like him, is a Double-Threat—they protect each other. And look at the events of today. After I threatened Mr. Pinch with Reduction, who should come to his aid? Why, Mr. Benjamin, of course! Double-Threats protecting Double-Threats protecting Double-Threats. When does the madness end? When will sanity once again be restored to these proud halls? How many times must we be bitten before we put the tigers to sleep?”
The Director’s voice was so confident and strong that even Charlie himself felt swayed by the man’s impassioned argument. But, before he could speak, the massive doors of the High Council Chamber flew open, and a worker in a blue uniform rushed in.
“What is the meaning of this?” Director Drake thundered. “We are in a closed-door session!”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” the man replied, his voice trembling as all eyes turned toward him. “I wouldn’t have come here if my news weren’t of the utmost urgency.”
“Then quit talking about how urgent it is and urgently tell us what we need to know!”
“Slagguron is on the move.”
Frantic talking erupted from the assembled crowd as they debated the meaning of this unwelcome news.
“Quiet! Quiet!” Director Drake demanded, cutting through the chatter. “Where’s he headed?”
The man struggled to steady his nerves. “Here. If Slagguron doesn’t deviate from his present course, he’ll arrive at the Nightmare Division within the hour.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
INVASION OF THE NAMED
The steel walls of the Chamber of Intelligence, nestled deep in the heart of the Nightmare Division, were covered in monitors that showed terrible images of Slagguron’s destructive path as he raced through the Earth’s crust, knocking down bridges and buildings in his ferocious wake. Charlie, watching from the back of the room with his friends, was amazed by the sheer volume of dirt that was being moved violently aside to allow Slagguron’s passage.
“Good lord, he’s fast,” Rex said, eyeing the large central monitor. A white dot represented the Lord of the Nether’s progress as he traveled with blistering speed across a satellite map of the United States.
“Are we certain he’s headed here?” Director Drake asked, a light sheen of nervous sweat glistening on his upper lip. “His path will take him through Las Vegas—maybe that’s where he’s planning to stop.”
“And do what? Gamble?” Rex rolled his eyes. “No, he’s coming here. The Named must’ve found out we were hunting them down and decided to hit us before we hit them. It’s what I’d do.”
Director Drake turned to William. “General Dagget, what’s your recommendation?”
“We need to evacuate immediately.”
“Evacuate?” Rex groaned. “Oh, come on—you can’t be serious. You mean you wanna run?”
“Of course not, and I don’t appreciate the implication. We will fight, but not trapped in here where Slagguron can crush us like a tin can. Our one advantage is that we know he’s coming, thanks to the tracking device placed by my son.”
Theodore was startled by the unexpected praise. “You hear that?” he whispered to Charlie. “He called me his son right in front of everybody.”
“He sure did,” Charlie replied with a smile.
“No,” William continued. “We’re going to clear out and when Slagguron strikes, he’ll just be attacking an empty building. Then we’ll portal back and hit him from aboveground, where he’s not expecting it.”
Rex nodded and Charlie could tell the cowboy was impressed with the plan. Director Drake turned to an aide. “Start the evacuation.”
Blue lights began to flash throughout the facility, and teams of Nethermancers sprang into action, rushing to other areas of the Division to begin portaling out personnel.
“What about the civilians?” Tabitha asked Drake.
“Civilians?”
“The ones up there.” She nodded to the ceiling. “If we’re fighting above ground, the people in the zoo are going to get slaughtered.”
The zoo! It had been so long since Charlie had entered the Nightmare Division through anything but a portal that he had completely forgotten it was actually built underneath the San Diego Zoo. He had once asked Rex why that was, but Rex had just shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe because folks are used to hearing all kinds of strange growls and noises in a zoo, so they wouldn’t think twice if they get an earful of one of our critters.”
Charlie wasn’t sure that that was the real reason, but right now it didn’t matter. If they didn’t do something quickly, feeding time at the zoo was about to take on a whole new meaning.
“Point well taken,” Director Drake said to Tabitha. “Take a squad up there and clear the area.”
“Right away.” She rushed out of the room.
“There he goes,” William grunted, pointing to a monitor that showed an aerial view of Las Vegas.
“Just look at that destruction.”
Streets buckled as something massive tunneled beneath them. The fake Statue of Liberty that adorned the front of the New York, New York, casino toppled into traffic. Cars slid into buildings; buses flipped onto their sides. Even though the v
ideo had no sound, Charlie could see pedestrians screaming as they dived to the ground to avoid the mayhem.
“Oh no,” Violet moaned. “Those poor people.”
They watched in horror as Slagguron passed beneath the black pyramid of the Luxor Hotel, shattering every window in the place. Glass fell to the pavement like rain. William turned to Director Drake.
“We need to alert Camp Pendleton.”
The Director nodded. “Agreed.”
“Wait, you’re gonna call the military?” Rex shook his head in disbelief. “That’s a death sentence!”
“For Slagguron?” Charlie asked.
“No, kid—for the military. They’ll just get in our way and he’ll have a field day tearing them apart.”
“They’re going to show up eventually,” William countered. “They tend to notice little things like a giant monster running amok.”
“I suppose.” Rex sighed heavily. “Well, if they’re coming, you better tell ’em to bring everything they’ve got—no sense in them being here if they’re outgunned. And you better tell ’em to hurry.”
Charlie glanced back at the central monitor. Slagguron had left Las Vegas far behind and was now entering California. If he kept up that astonishing speed, he would be in San Diego within minutes. “What can we do to help?” he asked Rex.
“Help? Only way you can help is by gettin’ out of here so we can do our jobs.”
“No way!” Theodore shouted. “You didn’t want to run and neither do we!”
“This isn’t kid stuff anymore. School’s out! Class dismissed! Now shoo!”
“He’s right,” Brooke said. “We really should go. We’ll just be in the way.”
Charlie knew Rex was right. They’d never been in a battle like this before and would probably just end up getting hurt or killed…and yet he couldn’t bear the thought of missing out on the action.
“We’re staying,” Charlie said. “Or at least I am. I can’t speak for anyone else.”
Rex shook his head. “Kid, I don’t have time for this. I seriously don’t.”
“Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine.”
“I thought I told you to stop saying stuff like ‘we’ll be fine’ when you have no idea what you’re talking about!”
And that was when they felt the vibration.
It was weak and distant at first, a faraway thrumming, like a train that was still miles down the track.
“That’s him,” William said. “Banisher Henderson, grab your squad and go.”
“All right.” Rex turned to Charlie. “You get outa here—I’m serious. Promise me, Charlie.”
“I promise.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” With a shake of the head, Rex ran off to join the adults under his command.
The thrumming noise grew louder as the entire complex began to shake violently. Equipment fell from shelves; overhead lights sparked and then went out.
Charlie glanced at the main monitor. Slagguron was almost on top of them. “We better go,” he said with a sigh.
“You sure?” Theodore asked.
Charlie nodded.
“Then hurry!” Brooke yelled. “Or it’ll be too late!”
With one wave of his hand, Theodore created a portal to the 1st Ring.
That vibrating sound filled the world, and suddenly the room beneath them exploded upward with such force that it knocked them through the open gateway and into the Nether, where they landed in a pile on the hard, bluish sand.
Charlie turned back just in time to see Slagguron hurtle up from the dark, earthen depths like a gigantic great white shark. With a roar, the Named creature punched a massive hole all the way through the underground facility, his slick gray body rushing past like a freight train.
“Wow,” Theodore muttered.
Then, to everyone’s shock, Slagguron was quickly followed by Barakkas, Verminion, and a flying, scuttling, snapping host of deadly creatures from the Nether.
“It’s all of them,” Brooke gasped. “Every single Named on Earth.”
“Close the portal!” Charlie shouted. “Close it now before they see us!”
With a wave of his hand, Theodore slammed the gateway shut. Instantly, the Nether went silent and still. No one moved until Brooke finally struggled to her feet, brushing off sand.
“Good job, Theo.”
Theodore blushed. “Thanks. It was nothing, really. Just a quick little portal.” He shrugged, obviously pleased with himself, then turned to Charlie. “So…when are we going back?”
“What?” Brooke shouted. “We’re not going back there, are we? We promised Rex!”
“I promised him we would leave,” Charlie replied. “I never said we wouldn’t go back.”
“What are you, a politician? You know they don’t want us there and for good reason! We could all be killed!”
“Or we could save people,” Theodore countered. “You saw how many creatures were attacking. All of them! This is it, their endgame. They mean to totally wipe us out—the Nightmare Division might not even exist when they’re through. We gotta do what we can, no matter what. Come on, Charlie, you agree with me, right?”
Charlie considered. It was truly a tough choice:
If they went back to fight, they could certainly be killed, no question about it. But this was an all-or-nothing attack on the Division from the army of the Nether. They had to do what they could, didn’t they? They had skills—pretty good ones, actually. Why waste them? And yet…could he really stand to have the deaths of his friends on his head? If he chose to go back and fight, they would follow.
Was that really a choice he could make for them?
“Well?” Brooke demanded.
“We’re going back,” Violet said softly.
Everyone turned to her. She’d been so quiet that Charlie had forgotten she was even there.
“You sure, Violet?” Charlie asked.
She nodded. “Tabitha was right. This isn’t going to be contained in the Division. The fight’s going to happen above ground, in the zoo. There will be school groups there, babies and their parents. They’ll need our help.”
“I don’t understand you,” Brooke protested. “Just a little bit ago you were telling me that you felt yourself slipping away, that the warrior part of you was taking over and you hated it. Now you want to go and fight?”
Violet looked up at the older girl with a new hardness in her eyes; Charlie was shocked by the intensity of it.
“I won’t let another kid get taken from their parents…or another parent get taken from their kid. I won’t see that happen again.”
Again? Charlie wondered what Violet was talking about. Sure, his parents had been taken from him by Verminion, but she hadn’t been there to witness it. He couldn’t figure out what had gotten her all worked up.
Unless…
“Are you talking about your mother?” he asked quietly.
Violet didn’t respond. Finally, she nodded almost imperceptibly.
“You said she died. How did she die?”
Violet’s eyes grew watery, but she never lost her composure. “I had a nightmare.”
I had a nightmare.
The weight of those four words rested heavily on Charlie’s heart, and he suddenly understood so much more about his friend. Her mother hadn’t just died, she had been killed. And not just killed, she had been killed by a monster from one of Violet’s nightmares.
The guilt must be terrible, Charlie thought. It wasn’t her fault—she’d been just a child, there was nothing she could have done to control or prevent it. And yet he knew that if it had happened to him, he wouldn’t have been able to carry on.
“I’m going back to fight,” Violet said. “I’m going back there to help those families. You can come with me or you can stay, but I need you to open a portal. Will you do that for me?”
“Sure,” Charlie replied. “Definitely. And I’m going with you. In fact, I’d say it’s time for some payback.”
Theodore bro
ke into a huge grin. “Time for some payback! Yes! That’s the way I roll, baby! Yeee-hah!”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
PAYBACK
The San Diego Zoo had turned into a war zone.
The first thing Charlie noticed as he stepped through the portal was the sound: a cacophony of screams and screeches and the metallic grinding of heavy machinery. The U.S. military had already begun to arrive; tanks rolled through Tiger River and Sun Bear Forest while warplanes screamed overhead.
It didn’t matter.
Just as Rex had predicted, the monsters of the Nether tore through them as if they didn’t even exist.
Barakkas, ten stories of thickly muscled, blue-skinned rage, picked up armored vehicles and threw them, as if they were as light as sandbox toys, into the approaching troops with his one good hand, knocking them down like bowling pins.
Slagguron, meanwhile, exploded from the ground in a fury of dirt and metal, exposing the ruins of the Nightmare Division directly below. Then, like a whale doing a belly flop, he slammed back into the earth, crushing everything beneath him with his astonishing bulk before disappearing into the ground once again to repeat the devastating process.
And Verminion, easily the size of a baseball diamond, scuttled forward on his crablike legs, while hundreds of rockets detonated harmlessly on the back of his thick shell. His one giant claw snapped through hastily assembled barricades like butter.
And those were just the Named monsters.
The regular Class 5s were quickly overwhelming the desperate ground troops with their sharp teeth and deadly pincers. In a surreal twist, spindly pink flamingos, long-necked giraffes, and leaping gazelles—freed from their habitats by the destruction—ran frantically through the attacking Nethercreatures. Overhead, Netherbats swooped down on jetfighters, tearing them from the sky and hurling them to the ground in massive fireballs. The big cats from the lion and tiger areas squared off against a herd of Netherstalkers and were quickly torn to pieces—there was absolutely no question who was king of the jungle here.
To Charlie, it didn’t seem real.
