T
heodore’s father, William, stepped through the portal and on to the deck of the pirate ship. The medals on his black uniform gleamed in the sun, identifying him as the General of the Nightmare Division.
“What are you doing here?” Theodore demanded. Charlie had never heard him take such a stern tone with his father. It made him sound…older somehow.
“Why I am here does not concern you.”
“But it concerns
me
,” Mama Rose said, stomping up to the much bigger man. “In the Headmaster’s absence, I’m the head honcho and I don’t like fools portalling in and out of my tree. Now state your business or be on your way.”
“All right,” William said, then turned to Charlie. “Mr Benjamin, your presence at the Nightmare Academy
suggests you are under the impression that you can return to your studies. Clearly, you do not understand the terms of your exile.”
“I guess not,” Charlie replied, “probably because no one has ever bothered to talk to me about it.”
“Then let me clarify. You are no longer allowed on any property owned or controlled by the Nightmare Division - which includes the Nightmare Academy. You are to have no contact with anyone associated with either of these places, including your former fellow students.” He glanced warningly at Theodore. “Further, you are forbidden from interfering in our battle against the monsters of the Nether. You may fight them in self-defence, but that is
all
. If you have any questions, everything is spelled out here in great detail.” William held up a document with the words ‘ORDER OF EXILE’ written in bold at the top and signed by Director Drake at the bottom. He handed it to Charlie. “Read it carefully and follow it to the letter.”
“Or what?”
William blinked, still holding the orders. “Excuse me?”
“I said ‘or what’? What if I don’t follow it? What are you
threatening
?”
Even Charlie was surprised by the depth of his anger. How dare Director Drake tell him where he could go,
who he could hang out with and what he could and couldn’t do to protect innocent people in this terrible War of the Nether? Drake was just a bureaucrat, a pencil-pusher - he didn’t even have the Gift himself, but he certainly had no problem bullying people that did!
“If you violate any of the Rules of Exile, you will be Reduced,” William said simply.
Charlie shrugged. “So what? Do you know how many times Drake has called for me to be Reduced? He’s like a playlist with only one song.”
Charlie expected William to argue back, but was surprised when the Banisher gently pulled him to one side, away from the others. “That may be, Charlie - but he really means to do it this time.” For just an instant, Charlie could see through the tall man’s gruff façade to the human being underneath. It was a welcome sight. “Most people were on your side before - you were just a child and the Headmaster was highly regarded. But no more. They’re frightened now. The stakes are too high and almost everyone in the Division agrees that you’re just too great a threat. They all
want
to see you Reduced, Charlie, and Drake is looking for any excuse to do it. If you violate these rules—” he held up the Order of Exile “—the Director
will
call on me to carry out the punishment and I
will
do it, do you understand?”
The General thrust the Order at Charlie, then turned to address the others. “From this moment on, Charlie Benjamin is never again to set foot here at the Academy and is forbidden from having contact with any of its students.”
“That’s not going to work for me.”
Charlie stared in surprise at Violet. She was glaring at William with a hand on her hip and an expression that said, quite clearly, ‘You don’t scare me’.
“Whether or not it
works
for you, young lady, is irrelevant. It is simply a fact.”
“No one is going to tell me I can’t be with Charlie - I don’t care what kind of ‘orders’ you have.”
William frowned. “Well, you’re welcome to join him in exile…although I do not recommend it.”
“Then consider me exiled.”
“Violet!” Charlie cried. As gladdened as he was by his friend’s support, he couldn’t bear the thought of being responsible for her getting kicked out of the Academy. Her mother was dead and her father was nowhere to be found. Without the Academy, what did she have left? “Don’t do this. Really. I’ll be fine.”
“No, you won’t. You’ll be all alone.”
“That’s OK. It won’t be the first time.”
Violet shook her head. “No, it’s not OK. When you
want to open a portal, what’s the fear you summon up?”
Charlie hesitated. “Being alone, I suppose.” He hated saying it out loud. It made him feel too…vulnerable.
“I won’t let that happen to you, Charlie. Not now, not ever.” She turned back to William. “You can tell Director Drake that I stand with Charlie.”
“Me too.”
All eyes turned to Theodore. He held his father’s gaze with steady conviction. “Charlie’s my best friend. I won’t leave him. That’s TI - Totally Impossible. You should know that.” Charlie was about to protest when Theodore threw up his hand. “And don’t even bother telling me ‘no’. You know you’re not going to change my mind, so don’t even try. This is a Double-D.”
“A Done Deal?” Charlie asked.
Theodore nodded and a smile broke through his stormy expression. “That’s just the way I roll.”
Charlie knew Theodore well enough to know that once his mind was made up, he wasn’t easily persuaded to change it.
“OK,” Charlie said. “And thanks. Seriously.”
“Don’t do this, Theodore,” William said with a sigh. “Consider your actions carefully. The choices we make can have great and terrible consequences.”
Theodore’s eyes blazed with anger. “You mean like the way you
chose
to kill the Guardian and then decided to blame it on Charlie!”
The other students gasped in astonishment. There it was, out on the table - the
real
reason for Charlie’s exile. William shifted uncomfortably, and Charlie was surprised by how unsettled the General looked in the face of his son’s rage.
“That’s not what happened.”
“I saw you, Dad. I saw you there in the lair of the Named, killing the Guardian.”
“You saw me
holding
it.”
“Which is what killed it!”
It had been several weeks since Theodore had stumbled across his father in the icy lair of the Named. Charlie hadn’t been with them then - he’d been in a nearby cavern, fighting the monsters of the Nether - but he could easily imagine the sight that had so tortured his best friend.
William, tall and strong, holding the limp body of the Guardian - a frail creature of great power, yet so desperate for human touch. But just as the Guardian’s aura was poisonous to the creatures of the Nether, the touch of a human was poisonous to the Guardian.
“The Guardian was already dead when I got there,
Theodore. I told you that.”
“I know you did. And you also told me that Charlie killed it.”
“The
Director
said that.”
A small distinction
, Charlie thought.
But a very important one.
“So does that mean you deny it?” Theodore pressed. “Or do you agree with the Director? When Charlie took the Guardian away from the rest of us, did he touch it and kill it?”
William’s answer seemed to bring him pain: “Yes.”
He’s lying
, Charlie suddenly realised.
He’s not just mistaken - he’s actively lying. He knows he’s wrong, he knows I’m innocent, but he’s doing it anyway. Why?
And then the answer struck him like a thunderbolt.
Because he knows who
really
killed the Guardian - and he’s protecting him.
Charlie knew there was only one person in the world, aside from Theodore, that William Dagget would gamble his reputation to protect…
Director Drake.
No one saw who really killed the Guardian, but that was only because no one saw Director Drake slip out of the icy lair of the Named and enter the safe haven where the Guardian was holed up. No one saw him embrace the frail creature and press the poison of his skin against it,
knowing that it would mean the Guardian’s death.
No one…but Theodore’s father, William.
“I don’t believe you,” Theodore said, staring at his father as Charlie and the rest of them looked on silently. “Whether or not you killed it, you had
something
to do with it. It definitely wasn’t Charlie. Definitely.”
“Son, listen to me…” William replied, clasping Theodore’s shoulder with a strong hand.
Theodore shook it off. “Don’t call me that.
Never
call me that again. I’m not your son.” He turned to Charlie. “Let’s go. Let’s leave here and never come back.”
Brooke stood up. “Well, if you’re going, I’m coming with you.”
“Are you crazy?” Geoff cried out. “Don’t be stupid, Brooke! You’re a Leet Facilitator - you’re going to graduate in a few weeks and join me at the Division! Do you seriously want to throw that all away to go prancing around in exile with this…Noob?”
He spat the word ‘Noob’ at Charlie like it had a bad taste.
“He’s not a Noob,” Theodore said, stepping threateningly close. “He’s an Addy, just like the rest of us. The Headmaster promoted us.”
“The Headmaster!” Geoff laughed mirthlessly. “Is that old relic even still alive? No one’s seen her in a week! I heard she croaked.”
Even though Theodore wasn’t strong, he was fast, and his small, bunched-up fist connected with Geoff’s jaw almost instantly. Taken by surprise, Geoff dropped to the ground and Theodore pounced on him like a terrier, throwing punch after punch in crazy, windmill fashion.
“You take that back!” Theodore shouted. “She is not dead!”
Suddenly, Theodore felt a strong hand on his back as Mama Rose snatched him by the shirt and yanked him off the older boy. “Calm down, ya runt! I agree he needs a good butt-kickin’, but now is not the time!”
“I’m going to knock you into tomorrow, idiot!” Geoff said, leaping towards Theodore. But before Geoff could make contact, a strand of spider-silk snaked through the air and wrapped around his leg. Professor Xix quickly reeled him in, slamming Geoff to the ground and dragging him backwards across the floor.
“Save the fighting for later, child,” the Professor said calmly. “We’ve more important things to discuss.”
Mama Rose turned to William. “Yeah, important things like what a sad and stupid piece of work you and the Director are. If I didn’t have to protect these boys and girls here at the Academy, I’d join Charlie and his friends in exile!”
“Duly noted,” William said softly.
“And you can add me to that list,” Professor Xix seconded. “I would join them as well, if I didn’t have to stay and care for my beasts.”
“Well, we all have our priorities,” William replied. “For me, it’s the safety of all the human beings on this planet. For you, it’s…well, I guess it’s your
beasts
.”
Xix’s eyes darkened with anger and he was about to respond when a fiery portal popped open next to William and an adult Facilitator ran through.
“General Dagget?”
“Yes?”
“We need you right away, sir. There’s been a development.” The Facilitator suddenly looked very serious. “The fog over Central Park has lifted, General…and there’s something
there
.”
A
purple portal snapped open on the roof of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. Charlie Benjamin stepped through, followed by Violet, Theodore and Brooke. The tall, pretty girl sighed dramatically. “Well, this is typical. We’ve only been exiles a couple of minutes and already we’re in trouble.”
“How do you work that out?” Violet replied, barely even glancing at her.
“You heard General Dagget. He said that exiles aren’t allowed to interfere in Nightmare Division business. Well…here we are. Interfering.”
“We are not interfering!” Theodore said. “We’re just
looking
. Heck, everyone on the planet is looking.” He gestured to the news helicopters buzzing noisily overhead.
“Well, they’ve definitely got something to look
at
,” Charlie replied, staring off at something the others couldn’t yet see. “You better come and check this out. You won’t believe it.”
Everyone joined him at the edge of the hotel roof and looked down. A gigantic nautilus shell, easily five storeys high, towered over Central Park - its gleaming, pearly exterior stretched nearly from one end to the other. Thousands of snail-like creatures swarmed across it, secreting a glistening ooze from their bellies. The slime quickly hardened in the afternoon sun, adding yet another layer to the massive spiral. It was as ominous as it was beautiful.
Violet shook her head in amazement. “What is it?”
“Their new lair,” Charlie replied. “At least that’s my guess. But I don’t know what those things are.” He pointed to the snail-like creatures that were now slithering off the side of the shell and heading into the large opening in the end that faced the hotel.
“Shellweavers,” Brooke replied. The rest of the group stared at her blankly. “Don’t worry, there’s no reason you’d know about them. I never saw one until Professor Xix showed them to us in our ‘Building The Nether: Deadly By Design’ class.”
Charlie nodded. “OK. So what do they do?”
“Basically, they build things. Their slime dries as hard as steel. Harder maybe. Apparently, they constructed a couple of the palaces in the Inner Circle.” She shrugged. “They’re not dangerous.”
“Maybe not,” Theodore said. “But there’s definitely something down there that
is
. Check out the soldiers.”
He pointed to the hundreds of soldiers that ringed the park. Some stood - rifles at the ready - while others kept watch inside their tanks and military vehicles. The entire area was on lockdown. There were no civilians anywhere.
“Wow, they really want to keep people out,” Brooke said.
“Or keep something else
in
,” Theodore added. “Something like
that
.”
He pointed to the entrance to the colossal shell. Something walked through the pearly curves, something regal and fierce.
“The Fifth,” Charlie whispered.
Even from this distance, her alien beauty drew all eyes like a magnet. She was tall - nearly two metres - and her great mane of silver hair flashed brilliantly in the afternoon sun, spilling over crimson skin like a rain of steel on an ocean of blood. Her legs were long and strong and she had four arms, each ending in purple talons - the exact colour of her cat-like eyes. The
Shellweavers that slithered past her cowered as they tried to escape into the lair to shield their moist bodies from the heat of her ferocious glow.
The soldiers circling the park were instantly aware of her presence and they quickly grew quiet. Even the distant roar of traffic and the drone of the helicopters circling overhead disappeared, as if some giant creature drew in its breath and inhaled all sound and noise and clamour.
All silent. All still.
The Fifth opened her mouth and began to speak.
“Good people of Earth, I bid you welcome.” Without even seeming to strain, her silken voice boomed up the sides of the skyscrapers and down the cavernous arteries of the city. “I have known many names. Some call me the Fifth; to my monstrous babies I am known as Mother; others call me Pearl - in honour of my marvellous new home.” She gestured to the spectacular shell behind her with a flick of her top right hand. “But I invite
you
to call me by my real name - the Queen of Nightmares.”
She smiled slyly. Charlie knew from grim experience that there was death behind that smile - death and suffering.
“She’s beautiful…” Theodore whispered. Violet
stared at him incredulously. “In a totally creepy and evil way, of course,” he quickly corrected himself.
“I understand you’ve all had a…difficult…week,” the Queen of Nightmares continued with mock sympathy. “I’m told my darling babies visited you in the dark of the night with their pointy teeth and sharp stingers and caused you no end of trouble - children screaming, grown-ups carried off into the blackness. Terrible times…”
She shook her head sadly, although Charlie detected more than a hint of amusement.
“I am here today to tell you that the misery you have experienced is only the beginning. You have barely begun to taste the doom that will descend upon you. Today,
this minute
, things are going to change. And when they do, when you realise the full scope of the horror that is coming to your world, you will scream for the gentle days when all you had to fear were the beasts of your nightmares.”
She raised her four arms. “Good people of Earth, your rule is over. The time of the monsters has come.”
Oh no
, Charlie thought.
What’s she going to do?
But before anything further could happen, there was a sound. Small at first - a low, dull whine - it soon sharpened and became the bright roar of a fighter jet screaming overhead. As it passed, two long, silver tubes launched from its wings and arrowed down towards
Central Park far below, leaving twin trails of smoke.
Missiles!
Charlie realised.
They’re going to shoot her with
—
WHAM!
The explosion was so immense that Charlie and his friends were thrown to the ground as a wave of heat blasted them. A ball of fire blossomed out from the front of the enormous nautilus shell and plumed upwards, revealing a scorched crater beneath. As Charlie scrambled to his feet, he saw that the shell itself was untouched - the massive explosion hadn’t seemed to damage or harm it in any way.
“Well, I’m no chef,” Theodore said, shakily standing, “but I’m guessing that four-armed chick’s goose is
cooked
.” He turned to help Violet and Brooke up, while Charlie peered into the thick black smoke that blanketed the front of the shell, desperately looking for any signs of movement.
Nothing. And then he heard a sound.
Laughter. A female voice - rich and throaty and full of mockery.
As the smoke cleared, he saw the Queen of Nightmares standing exactly where she had been when the missiles first slammed into her: untouched and unharmed. Her purple cat-eyes glittered with dark delight.
“Charming,” she said, and her casual tone of voice chilled Charlie to the core. “What’s next? Poison? Lightning bolts? Asteroids? Please, send me your worst…as long as I get to do the same.” With that, she raised all four arms to the sky. Her silver hair flashed in the sun. “Wonderful people of Earth, it’s time to introduce you to my newest babies…my dark darlings…my Elemental Golems. Say hello to…Fire!”
With a flick of her top right hand, two circles of glowing cinder on the scorched earth beside her erupted into brilliant flames. The fiery pillars raged upwards, growing and expanding, licking at the sky with orange tongues until forming themselves into creatures. They were blazing, brutish things, five storeys high and made entirely of fire. Every step of their thick legs left behind bubbling pools of lava and every touch of their fingers summoned an inferno.
Violet shook her head. “This is bad…”
Then, with a flick of her lower left hand, the Queen of Nightmares made the ground shudder violently. Two huge slabs of rock exploded from the still smoking dirt and then crashed back down with earthquake-like force. Deep cracks spider-webbed across them, causing huge boulders to fall as if chiselled away by some insane, invisible sculptor. Giant stone creatures emerged. They
were horrible, blocky things with wide foreheads and fists the size of tanks. Their dull, empty eyes made them look stupid and slow, but Charlie guessed that they were deadly.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the Queen of Nightmares said pleasantly. “Meet Earth.”
The two Elemental Earth Golems walked to stand beside the two Elemental Fire Golems. With every step they took, the world shook with thunder.
“Um, wow,” Theodore said. Charlie and the others nodded in agreement.
The Queen of Nightmares continued. “As all good schoolchildren know, there are not just two elements - there are four. I’d now like to introduce you to Air.”
With a flick of her bottom right hand, the air on either side of her began to spin violently.
“And Water.”
With the slightest of gestures from her top left hand, the water in the Pulitzer Fountain at the southern end of Central Park shot upwards, twisting and churning, until it split to create two gigantic spouts, each thirty metres high. The enormous columns of water and air expanded and reshaped themselves until they formed entirely new Golems, huge and terrible. Their existence was impossible, and yet, there they
were
.
The two violently spinning Water Golems sailed back to the shell on a giant wave that would have doomed even the most experienced surfer, while the two Air Golems - looking for all the world like living tornadoes - settled down on either side of their fellows to create a line of eight Golems, two of each kind.
Brooke stared at them in dismay. “Even if we destroyed all the regular monsters of the Nether, the Fifth could just create more of these things!”
Charlie nodded. “Yeah. And we don’t even know if she can be killed. I mean, not even a missile strike could take her out.”
“Oh, you’ll kill her,” Theodore said, arms crossed. “Definitely.”
“How?”
“Well, how am I supposed to know? I’m sure you’ll figure
something
out. I mean, that’s what you do, isn’t it? You’re good like that.” He clapped Charlie on the back.
Before Charlie could reply, the Queen of Nightmares lowered her arms and said, “Delicious people of Earth, the time for talking is over. Now is the time for dying.” She turned to the Elemental Golems. “Attack, my beautiful babies.”
As if turned on by a switch, the eight horrific creatures headed out of Central Park and into the city beyond. The
military personnel that ringed the park held their ground and fired upon the rampaging monsters, but their bullets passed right through the Air, Water and Fire Golems and bounced off the Earth Golems like grains of sand off steel.
One of the Earth Golems shattered the large glass cube above the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue with a gigantic stone fist, followed instantly by a Water Golem that flooded down into the exposed complex beneath. A Fire Golem breathed lava on the nearby FAO Schwartz Toy Store, while an Air Golem rocketed high into the air and crashed down into Times Square, sucking soldiers into its deadly, whirling funnel.
As the Golems wreaked their destruction, Nethercreatures swarmed up from the sewers and down from the skies to attack the fleeing, panicked people. Dangeroos stuffed some of them into their stinking pouches while Hags descended, cackling, from the smoke-darkened sky to carry off others in a swirl of filthy hair and tattered ballgowns.
“What do we do?” Brooke screamed as they watched the devastation from their vantage point atop the Plaza Hotel.
Charlie shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Nothing!” Theodore shouted. “What kind of an answer is that? Come on - let’s go spank these bad boys!
Use some of those sweet Double-Threat moves you’ve been working on!”
Charlie pointed towards a purple flash far below. It was a portal created by a Nethermancer, who leaped through, followed by a mace-wielding Banisher. “They don’t need us. The Nightmare Division is already sending in the troops. In fact, there’s your dad—”
Charlie nodded down the street to a black-clad Banisher swinging a two-handed sword at a Silvertongue.
“OK, great!” Theodore shouted. “My dad’s here! The cavalry has arrived! Woo-hoo! Now let’s go and help out!”
“We don’t have time. There’s something much more important that we have to do first. We’ve got to—”
“CHARLIE BENJAMIN.”
Charlie looked down to see the Queen of Nightmares standing in front of the giant nautilus shell. She smiled as her voice boomed across the city. “People are dying around you by the hundreds. Will you save them? Or are you
afraid
?”
“I’m not afraid,” Charlie replied. “But getting rid of your ‘babies’,” he gestured to a Fire Golem that was climbing the Empire State Building, turning everything it touched into molten slag, “isn’t going to solve anything. I don’t need to stop them, I need to stop
you
- or you’ll
just keep making more of them.”
“Very true. There’s a whole world out there to destroy - a monster’s playground - and my beautiful babies will soon rule it all.”
“Every playground has bullies and every bully has a weakness. We’ll soon find yours.”
The Queen of Nightmares’ laughter pealed across the skyscrapers, shattering glass. “Of course you will, Charlie Benjamin. Of course you will.”
With that, she walked inside her pearly lair and was gone.
“OK,” Brooke said. “Nice creepy confrontation with the most deadly boss of the Nether. Now how were you planning on killing her exactly?”
“No idea,” Charlie replied. Unfortunately, that was
true
.
“There you are!” a familiar voice suddenly roared from somewhere high above. Charlie looked up to see a portal hovering in the air over the nautilus shell in the park. It was so far away that he struggled to recognise the person looking through it - until he noticed the weathered cowboy hat the man wore.