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THE GAIAN PRESS - Issue 7.0 - August '05


IN THIS ISSUE:
1. The Neighborhood Watch - Gaian news for our attention deficit generation.
2. Honorable Mentions - Writing submitted and scouted by the best.
3. Point! What's Your Point? - Anti-social, anti-state, anti-you.
4. Critic's Corner - What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.
5. Contest Winners - At long last! The grand prize winners!
6. Beyond the Box - This month? Gah, anecdotes galore!
7. The Afterthought - Preview for the next issue and then some.



Editor's Note: TGP is currently reserving space for authors, guild owners, shopkeepers or anyone else that wish to advertise in our 'zine. All proceeds will be added to the 'zine fund for future contests or writing projects, so don't hesitate to support this cause! Visit our HQ thread or contact alicemae for more details.



Kraeela reports:
.....Open your minds! Support the GSA, or Gay Straight Alliance Guild, today!

.....Are you a struggling writer? Are you sick of those pompous and pretentious writing guides that keep telling you about the things NOT to do? Well, meet the thread of your dreams, fellow traveler: Say hello to The Anti-Guide, and I quote, "a compiling of ways to totally screw the living (well, figuratively living) s**t out of a story."

.....Here's the Gaian version of your local Rent-a-Tux dealer. Pay 'em a visit today!

.....Are you a bad writer? Or perhaps a brilliant writer that wonders what it would be like to be one of those inferiors? Finally, here's a little something called The Worst Story Ever Contest to oblige writers from both ends of the spectrum! Woot!

.....Looking for something mindless and amusing to do? Click here for the "What-kind-of-story-does-the-guy/girl-above-you-belong-in?" avatar game! (Gah, try saying that ten times fast.)

.....Here's a helpful public service announcement that adds a new spin about online stranger danger. After all, "the human body is no place for a dragon's soul," wouldn't you agree?

.....Uh-oh, the higher-ups are on our case again. This time it's about those lengthy shadows that follow us from post to post called... DUN-DUN-DUN, signatures. So be good already or you'll be fined!



Editor's Note: If you would like to be published in the next issue of TGP, simply contact alicemae or visit our guild for submission guidelines!



PART I. Poetry

Untitled
by Follow My Lied

The angels cried with joy that day
God scooped His hand down in the clay
and took to forming with that hand
the very shape and mold of man.

But in that bite of poisoned seed
We sought to meet an unknown need
which, to this day, goes unfulfilled.
And thus we saw warm Eden chilled.

Through all that we've now understood,
An angel's tears still do no good.



PART II. Fiction
Listed in alphbetical order by author.

The Badger Brigade by Hemp Fandango
The Rape of Ganymede by Lolita Complex



Editor's Note: To read more of "The Badger Brigade," visit Hemp Fandango's thread or our guild forum to read past issues.

The Badger Brigade
by Hemp Fandango

Chapter 7: The Madness of Miss Lovegood

There was going to be another Badger Brigade meeting that night. News spread quickly through the house and soon everyone was buzzing with information. By now, most had heard about the Suzaku debacle and how the most of the Slytherin class vanished.

At first, some people (Alex) hoped that the class was turned to taffy with Suzaku. This was not so, as Polaris and her cronies were seen healthy and mopey as ever the next day at breakfast.

"This is not encouraging," Alex griped from her seat at the Hufflepuff table, as Polaris and the rest flounced past.

"Try not to think about it," Sara advised. "Just try to think about the meeting tonight."

"Why? I'm not the one who has to make another presentation to the whole house and some Slytherins." Alex said. "How's the speech coming, anyway?"

Much to Alex's disappointment, Sara did not flinch. She continued to cut her toast into soldiers, unperturbed. "Actually, I'm not speaking at all tonight. Those sixth year Slytherin girls will be doing most of the speaking."

"Glad to hear it." Alex commented while buttering her own piece of toast.

"It's a blessing, really." Sara went on. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not a very good public speaker."

"You? Not a good public speaker? Why, I never." Alex said, spraying toast crumbs everywhere and grinning.

Elizabeth frowned and brushed herself clean of toast debris. "You really shouldn't talk with your mouth full, Alex..." she trailed off suddenly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something gold and shining. She looked up and saw-

"Oh no," she moaned. "It can't be..."

"What?" Sara asked, craning her neck to see what had caught Elizabeth's attention.

"Isn't that... Loony Lovegood?" Alex said, squinting at the figure in the distance. Elizabeth turned away.

"Where?!" Sara demanded, her interest perked.

"Over there! At the Ravenclaw table!" Alex gestured vaguely in the direction of the blue-clad table.

"What are we looking for?" Hannah asked, leaning over.

"Loony Lovegood. She's become one of Them."

"I don't see her," Sara whined.

"Use your eyes," Alex said annoyed. "Look, she's the one with waist length golden-blond hair, like a river of sunlight."

Sara rose from her seat to get a better look. "There's at least three people like that. Be more specific."

Alex rolled her eyes.

"I see her! I see her!" Susan cried enthusiastically.

Sara sighed and fell back into her seat. "That's another down," she muttered, pulling off her glasses and rubbing them with her cloak. "I wish I knew why. Why go for Lovegood? There are better looking girls in her year alone..." Another sigh.

"Another one bites the dust," said Alex.

They watched Luna in silence for a few seconds, taking in her new appearance.

"Huh," said Hannah. Then, they all went back to eating breakfast.

Except Elizabeth. Her gaze slid off of the beautiful creature that was supposed to be Luna Lovegood and the person sitting next to her. Her hair was such a dark black that it shone blue in the light and flowed down her shoulders to her waist. Her skin was alabaster white, much paler than Luna's, but even from her distance, Elizabeth could tell there was a strong resemblance between the two girls.

That was strange... but then, what wasn't strange anymore? Nothing made sense these days. Logic flew out the window long ago.

Elizabeth sighed and stared down at her plate, picking despondently at her scrambled eggs. Yes, she reflected, it was only a matter of time before Luna gave into... whatever it was. Not even Granger could escape it.

"Maybe no one can escape it," she whispered dramatically.

"Escape what?" Sara asked mildly, while holding her lenses up to the light.

"This... epidemic thing." Elizabeth said, gesturing vaguely. "I mean, first Granger, then Weasley, then Luna."

"So Loony Lovegood got hit with the weird disease. Big deal. It's not like she's a great loss to the cause." Alex pointed out drily.

"Hmm..." Sara said, as she slowly lowered her glasses. "Why was Luna targeted? For that matter, why was Granger and Ginny? I mean, so far it's really just them, right?"

"Not exactly," Alex said shrugging. "A few boys have been acting weird. Snape for example. And, uh... Well, actually, Snape is the worst example I can think of."

"Harry's been acting differently too," Hannah said, turning to face the fifth years fully. "He used to be quite nice... Er, most of the time. He was sort of stroppy last year."

"Yeah," Susan added. "He's been kind of distant and spooky, lately. At first we thought it was normal because it was similar to how he acted last year, but now he's starting to get snotty and cruel and more than a little schitzo. He swings back and forth from attitude to attitude." Susan shook her head sadly. "Sometimes he's nice, sometimes he's a jerk."

"Harry...?" Sara's eyes narrowed as she squinted in the distance. "I wonder... the connection between Lovegood, Granger, and Ginny. Maybe it's him. Maybe he's the reason... Maybe he's the center..." she trailed off, staring hard into nothing.

Alex and Elizabeth stared at their friend. Alex rolled her eyes and went back to eating, but Elizabeth felt she was starting to understand what Sara was talking about.

Susan, too, was beginning to understand. "I think I get what you're getting at," Susan said, a slow smile creeping on her face.

"Yeah, yeah, Granger was one of his good friends, right?" Sara said excitedly.

"And everyone knows Ginny used to have a crush on him!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

"And Lovegood..." Here Sara faltered. "Lovegood..."

"Luna was in the DA with us last year," Susan said helpfully, her eyes bright with excitement.

"Oh my God, that's it!" Sara said, smiling like a loon. "It's all Harry Potter's fault!"

"Is it?" Alex, who had been quietly eating during the production, said mildly. "Zacharias will be pleased to hear that."

Sara ignored her, laughing to herself. "I can't believe we missed it! It all makes sense! Look how many of those things are in Gryffindor!" She jabbed her finger at the scarlet table.

An excited buzzing started along the table. News was spreading quickly.

Sara laughed, shaking her head. "I can't believe I missed it before. Man, I'm losing my touch."

"Yeah, but what about the Slytherins?" Alex said, putting down her fork and pushing her plate away. "There's a huge number in Slytherin, too."

"I bet it's because of Malfoy," Hannah said knowingly. "They hang off of him like barnacles. Malfoy's pretty close to Harry, too. Er. In a violent enemy kind of way."

"Same with Snape," Susan added.

Sara was bouncing up and down in her seat, smiling still. "I can't believe I didn't notice it before," she sang. "It's so obvious, ha ha ha..."

Elizabeth gave Sara a tired smile. She turned to ask Alex about what she thought, but the short haired girl was staring hard at the Slytherin table.

"What's up?" Elizabeth asked, following her gaze.

"Polaris." Alex answered out of the corner of her mouth. "She looks really angry."

Indeed, the violet eyed beauty was looking venomously at Sara. One of her friends whispered something into her ear and Polaris nodded, smirking unpleasantly.

"I don't think you should've had your revelation so loud, Sara," Alex said darkly. "They heard you."

"What...?" Sara stopped her little jig, and glanced over to the Slytherin table. Polaris was now indulging in a favourite activity of hers; tossing her hair over her shoulder. She gave Sara a quick, sharp glance, causing the Hufflepuff to flinch. For a brief moment it felt like her insides had been filled with ice. Her excitement drained along with the colour in her face.

"Big deal," she said quietly, with a forced casual look. "They would have found out eventually."

"I'm not sure I follow that logic," Alex said. "I, for one, would have liked having an element of surprise, even a brief one."

Sara looked uneasy. "Yes, well..."

"At least we still have the home advantage," Elizabeth said cheerfully.

"Yeah," Alex mumbled, her eyes fixed on Polaris. "But for how much longer?"

***

The day passed with unease. The usual slew of mindless lessons - complete with the mindless slew of the new students turning into various animals, controlling various elements, or having some kind of mental break-down through song - had finally finished for the day.

Most students decided to skip dinner and head straight to the Hufflepuff common room. Sara, Hannah, Susan, Ernie, Katherine, and, of course, Zacharias all went to the common room to prepare the night's meeting. Sara, who only had to introduce those nasty Slytherins, was feeling ill at ease. The look Polaris had given her at breakfast lingered in her memory. After the meeting she planned to have a lie down somewhere.

But not yet. She forcibly pushed the image of Polaris from her mind and focused on what she was planning. She knew that with the Taffy Girls greatly outnumbered their small group, and she also knew that they wouldn't be able to defeat them if the BB - as she and others were starting to call it - didn't work as a team. She glanced down at the designs she had sketched out on the scrap of parchment.

It would be a lot of hard work, she thought. Work that would require all of her rather vast knowledge of spells and enchantments, and it would give them a great edge, but would cost her a number of sleepless nights filled with amazingly complicated problems. She sighed happily. Even Polaris couldn't ruin that for her.

Polaris...

"Hey, Sara," Hannah said from behind, causing Sara to jump. "Er, we've heard about that Polaris girl and that she might have something planned for you." She craned her neck as she spoke, trying to get a look at the piece of parchment Sara was hurriedly stuffing into her robes.

"Yes," Sara said in a voice higher pitched than usual. "Yes, well, I'm not too worried. It's all just a silly little tiff, ha ha ha..." she spoke over the sound of her heart pounding.

"Right," Hannah said. "Well, the others and I would just like you to know that we, er, "got your back" as the kids say."

Sara blinked. "Really?"

Hannah smiled, a little strangely. "Yeah, of course. We're friends, right? I mean, we've really gotten to know each other lately and we wouldn't want to see you get in trouble with those crazy taffy girls."

Sara smiled gratefully.

"What are you working on?" Hannah asked.

Her look of happiness was replaced by a look of discomfort. "Um, well... It's complicated-"

Just then, the other members of the Badger Brigade arrived, providing a much appreciated distraction.

***

Alex filed in with the rest of the crowd, which was much larger than the last time they had a meeting. There were many more students attending tonight, and they weren't all Hufflepuffs.

The two Slytherin girls - Malfoy's slut and her crony - were towards the front of the crowd, chatting idly while those two trolls - Crabbe and the other one - stood around them like body guards.

There was also a handful of Ravenclaws in attendance, including their Seeker, Cho or something. She was talking worriedly with a few of her giggly friends. There was also that Italian boy Zacharias liked. Whatshisface. Ah, it didn't matter.

And, lastly, there were even some Gryffindors, much to Alex's surprise. There was only two of them, however. One was a blonde, freckled seventh year girl Alex vaguely recognized and the other was Neville Longbottom. Susan and Justin came over a few seconds later to talk to Neville, looking somber. A few moments later, the Cho girl timidly approached them and joined their conversation.

"I think Justin mentioned that they were all in that "dah" thing together," Elizabeth said.

Despite the large crowd, Alex and Elizabeth were given a wide breadth. News of Alex's cannibalism had spread quickly to the other houses.

"I hope they start soon," Alex muttered impatiently. She glanced over and caught sight of a third year staring at her owlishly at her. When she decided to return the favour, the third year looked alarmed and scurried away into the crowd. Alex swore under her breath.

"I would've thought you'd like scaring kids," Elizabeth remarked innocently.

"It gets really old, really fast." Alex said sourly.

***

In another, much quieter part of the castle, the caretaker, Argus Filch, stalked the halls with his dusty cat at his heels. Since the year began, for the first time in his employment history, he had made a point to avoid all students at all times. It just wasn't worth it anymore.

Not since that sorting ceremony that dragged into the early morning hours. Those girls, he knew, were trouble. They had done something to the Headmaster, something very strange. Filch had tried to complain to Dumbledore about the way a few of those new students had treated him and Mrs. Norris but the Headmaster had just given him a blank smile and some empty words about "misunderstandings" and "extenuating circumstances". Whatever that was supposed to mean.

Since then, Filch hadn't bothered with his usual tormenting of students. It just wasn't worth his time anymore. All those girls had sucked the fun out of it. Useless, vicious, little buggers all of them.

Almost all of them. There was the issue of Megan to consider.

She came the same night as the rest of the girls, and Filch was positive she was one of them. She came up to him in silence, and claimed to be his long-lost niece, showing him a letter from her parents - two people who Filch had never heard of in his life. The letter requested that Megan be shown the ways of Care taking from Filch. It wasn't as if - the letter had said - that she could do much else with her life. She was, after all, a squib.

Yes, just because she and Filch happened to share the same unfortunate "problem", she had to be foisted off on him. She didn't seem very pleased with the arrangement either, although it was hard to tell with that girl. Filch had quickly sent her to work, stating clearly that he didn't want to have to clean up after her. He had expected her to make his job harder. He couldn't have been more wrong.

She was a natural cleaner. She used the mop and bucket like a master. She took to cleaning like a fish to water. She could clean nearly everything, she knew various home formulas to get out even the toughest stains. Even the room splattered with taffy had been sparkling by morning. She was the best he had ever seen.

And she was a good girl, he thought grudgingly. She kept to herself and did what she told. She also seemed to hate the students as much as Filch did, which made her decent company.

"Uncle?" a soft voice from behind jostled Filch from his thoughts. He turned to face her. She was staring up at him with her big, amber eyes. Her soft, curly hair was tied tightly back in a high ponytail, with one lone tendril escaping at the front. She wore a dark, denim vest, brightly decorated with various buttons, over an olive green long-sleeved shirt with a faded silver star on the front. She wore a pair of loose jeans, held up with a brown belt.

"What have I told you about sneaking up on me like that?" he snapped.

"Sorry, uncle." she said automatically.

"You could give an old man a heart attack, doing something like that." he went on.

"Sorry, uncle."

"Fine, fine. What is it you want?" he asked while returning to his mopping.

"I just wanted to tell you that I've finished my chores," the halls beyond her gleamed, "and I'd like to vanish for about two hours to do something unsuspicious."

"Fine, fine." he said. "But if I discover you've shirked one responsibility, I'll string you up by your thumbs."

"Yes, uncle." she said dutifully. She trudged off in the opposite direction without another word.

***

The meeting had been called to order and some Hufflepuff twit was taking a roll call.

"This is so lame." Edwina observed.

Pansy paused in the task of filing her nails. "Lame as in unable to walk?"

Edwina rolled her eyes. "Yes," she said sarcastically. "That's exactly it. Lame as in unable to walk."

She, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle had been standing as close to the podium as they could manage and Edwina had passed the time by smirking evilly at the brown haired, nervous looking fifth year girl who stood next to Bones and Abbot. They had occasionally made eye contact and Edwina made sure to give the younger girl the meanest, smuggest look she could manage. That had been fun for a while but it was starting to get old.

Pansy, who had finished her nails and was moving on to retouching her make-up, just shrugged. "Just be patient, Edwina. You must be patient and cunning and so forth, otherwise the transfer students win and no one wants that."

There was a small pause. "I might," Crabbe rumbled.

"No one cares, Vincent dear." Pansy said absently while peering at her compact and carefully curling her eyelashes.

"Where did you get that curler from, anyway?" Edwina asked, frowning.

Pansy shrugged lightly. "Mmmm... I found it."

"Found it or stole it from the purse of one of those girls?"

"Hm. Now that I think about it, I think it was the latter." She said faintly.

"See, this is why we're friends. It's because of stuff like this."

***

Sara frowned at the crowd. That Slytherin girl had been giving her the oddest looks. 'I wonder if she's nauseous? Or maybe... ew, maybe she's hitting on me.' Sara's eyes widened with panic. 'Oh lord, that would be awkward.'

"So what was it you were doing earlier with the parchment?" Hannah whispered to Sara while Katherine started to recite the minutes from the last meeting.

"I'll tell you later," Sara replied just as quietly. "Er, what do you think of those Slytherins you invited?"

Hannah shrugged. "They're Slytherins. Not quite as nasty as they think they are, but unpleasant enough. Why?"

Sara shifted uncomfortably. "Just curious," she muttered.

***

In another part of the castle, in an expansive, gorgeous room behind an equally gorgeous statue, another meeting was taking place.

The room was yet again filled with beautiful, shapely figures, all chatting amicably. The various reflections from the mirrors and shimmering hair coupled with the echoing sound of hundreds of musical voices made the room almost dizzying.

'It's like one of those torture rooms,' Megan thought grimly as she stalked her way through the crowd. 'The ones where they blast heavy metal music while dumping freezing water on you, and so forth.' Her scrawny black cat trailed after her, sparing enough time to leer at the passing, sleek female cat of which there were hundreds.

The sound of wings thundered above as many different kinds of birds - ravens, owls, and Phoenixes mostly - flew above, chattering almost as loudly as their mistresses. A few girls had little dragons with jeweled scales perched on their shoulders. Needle sharp teeth glinted from a particular nasty looking opalescent one, sitting on the shoulder of a young dark haired man, two katanas strapped to his back and wearing a heavy looking, black trench coat over black clothes.

Megan stopped here. "Hey," she said in greeting. "I've never seen you around before. What's your name?" The young man glanced at her impassively.

"Konnichiwa stranger," he said in a hard voice. "I have many names-"

"Don't we all?" said a girl dressed in a rich violet and gold kimono. Her deep violet eyes glittered soulfully in the silver moonlight while her sleek black hair was held back in a high pony tail, worn in the style of samurai. Two black, cat-like ears poked out of her head, just as two gleaming white fangs were visible at each corner of her Sakura petal pink lips. A midnight black tail flicked back and forth behind her. "I have at least six names, but I am mostly called Megamino Kuroneko. I am a hanyou from Japan." adding helpfully, "That means I'm a half-demon."

"That's fascinating."Megan said while picking the grime out of her nails.

"As I was saying," the boy continued, shooting Kuroneko a dark look. "I have many names, but I do not recall what my true name is. I have adopted the name Dark Falcon or just Falcon. I awoke with amnesia at the steps of a monastary in Japan over ten years ago and was trained by the monks in every form of martial arts. I have a strange skill; I wield mastery over any form of blade-"

"What?" asked Kuroneko. "Even the scimitar?"

"Especially the scimitar," Falcon said darkly. He took a deep breath and went on, "Anyway, two years ago all the monks were brutally slaughtered by Death Eaters and I was the sole survivor. I vowed revenge against Voldemort - yes, I said his name - and from that day forward dedicated my life to killing him and his followers. Before I set out on my quest, my Sensei gave me these mystical blades-"

"I thought you said they all died," Kuroneko said suspiciously.

"Oh, they totally did," Falcon said quickly. "But my Sensei was struck with a mortal wound and he managed to stay alive just long enough to give me these katanas and then he died."

"That was thoughtful of him," Megan said, raising an eyebrow.

"Anyway, I found out that the only reason Voldemort attacked my monastery is because of these katanas. They are nigh unbreakable and one holds the strength of darkness while the other holds the light. They are the yin and the yang swords, and Voldemort wants them." He reached back and grasped the handle of the blade, closing his tortured ice blue eyes briefly. He opened them again, staring hard at Kuroneko, looking moody.

"Why?" Megan asked.

Falcon whirled around to face Megan. It looked as if he had forgotten she was there.

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't he want them? They hold unimaginable powers of destruction and ruin!" He exclaimed dramatically.

"Yes, but so does Voldemort." Megan pointed out. "He has a wand." She added helpfully. "Last I checked, wands can wield great damage, and, in fact, a wand would be even more dangerous than a sword. A sword can only cut and slice; and wand can do anything."

Falcon stared at her a moment, mentally processing this information. He blinked and turned away from her, back to face Kuroneko, forgetting the last ten seconds.

"Voldemort took everything from me," he went on dramatically. "Even my precious Himeko-chan..."

Megan sighed. 'I brought that on myself.'

'I liked it,' a scratchy voice said in her head. 'I like hearing their silly little stories. It's free entertainment.' Megan looked down at her feet, where her scrawny black cat sat. He looked back up at her, grinning a Chesire grin, teeth fully bared and it's blank, bulbous yellow eyes staring up at her.

'Save your "serial killer" look for someone who's still scared by it, Muffins.' she thought-spoke to him.

'Muffins?' came an incredulous female voice. 'You named that monstrosity Muffins?'

'Mr Muffins, actually.' Megan said back. 'Who is this?'

'I am Lyric Malfoy-Potter, daughter of Lucius Malfoy and James Potter.' came the haughty reply.

'Well, Lyric, this is a private line. Keep your nose out of it.' Megan replied.

'Fine,' came the huffy response. 'I can't help being telepathic, you know...' The voice and presence faded from her mind.

'I hate it when I pick up stray signals.'

'You should get a better long distance service.' Muffins said, stretching at her feet.

'Shut up.'

***

Pansy and Edwina had finally been called to the podium to deliver their speeches. Edwina smirked in triumph as the silly fifth year she had been terrorizing gave her a panicked look and sidled away from her... and right into mount. Goyle.

"Sorry," he mumbled as Sara turned to give him a look of alarm.

"It's alright," she said cautiously.

"All right then, everyone pay attention and look at me," Pansy called out to the silent crowd. "Right then," she said after a pause. "Some of you may have heard about the little event we had with Professor Suzaku. Some of you may have heard about how amazingly Persia and I handled it."

Someone snickered in the back of the crowd.

"Anyway," Pansy went on. "Persia had, at great personal risk, infiltrated the, um, ladies secret cabal the other night. She found out a great deal of things which she will now explain to us at great, exhausting detail. Persia?"

***

Polaris stepped up to the stage. She paused, looking out over the vast crowd of like-minded ladies. Everything have been going so well. There was music in the halls, Phoenixes circling the castle, suicide and/or rape attempts in the bathrooms, and make out sessions in the Astronomy Tower. She smiled charmingly, displaying her pearly whites to the world. Two scythe-like fangs glinted in the soft, silvery light of the room. Things couldn't have been going any better, and shook out her shining ebony hair in celebration.

"Ladies, ladies." she called out, her melodic voice carrying across the massive marble hall. The crowd was silent immediately. Polaris treated them to her radiant smile. "Thank you. Now, I'm sure you're all wondering why I called this meeting to order." Multi-colored heads nodded. "It is because of the recent... unpleasantness. I'm certain you are all aware of the unfortunate fate of our dearly departed Kiyone Suzaku, former professor of Martial Arts. Oh, speaking of which a replacement teacher has already been acquired and I would like to thank our dear Professor Celeste Black for arranging that so quickly. You are a shining example to us all with your amazing organizational abilities." Polaris paused. "Where was I again...?"

***

Edwina stepped up to the podium looking pained but fashionable. "Thank you, Pansy," she said graciously. "As my dear colleague here has mentioned, I alone infiltrated the transfer students' secret meeting. You see, the Slytherin house has been taking a beating lately. Strange girls dressed in leather have taken over, and made the common room into their own personal soap opera/make out cabana. I'm sure you have seen it too, but not on the personal scale Pansy and I have seen it. People you once thought you knew acting... acting like lunatics. I mean, I'm sure even you people have noticed what's happening. Take, for example, Draco Malfoy-"

"Please," Alex whispered. Elizabeth giggled softly.

"I'm sure you all know how he used to act-" The crowd started mumbling. Yes, they knew how he acted They had a number of colourful adjectives to apply to his actions. "-he used to be above everyone. He used to be refined, he used to be an example to all Slytherins, he used to be..." She trailed off in the sight of the blank looks the crowd was giving her. Pansy was nodding along behind her, eyes shining. "Well, he may not have seemed like that to people in other houses. Or to most of the people in Slytherin for that matter, either." She paused. "To tell you the truth, he was always a twit. I mean, you'd think that now that he was older he would have gotten some better "zingers" but he just seems to be recycling the same-" Pansy cleared her throat audibly and pointedly. "Even so," Edwina plowed on. "He was our twit, dammit.

"But now... now, he's some kind of leather pants wearing, thrusting, skeevy, limp wristed, sex maniac. Sometimes he wears make up. Not even good make up, but electric blue lipstick. That is not the behavior of a sane person, I tell you." Pansy sniffed loudly and dabbed at her eyes.

***

"Please do not misunderstand me," Polaris said. "I am happy with the way things are going. After all this time, I think we may have finally found a place to put up our feet, so to speak. Everything is changed because of us, and do you think it was easy?" The crowd started murmuring. "I don't think so! It took a great deal of effort, but together we did it!"

There was more excited murmuring. In the back of the crowd Megan remained silent while soft noise erupted around her.

"But even though this place seems perfect, we must realise there's going to be the occasional rough spot." she continued grimly.

***

Edwina took a deep breath and continued warily. "Draco is just one of many examples of what's gone wrong with the Slytherin house and, to a lesser extent, the school. We all know it's because of those thing-girls. They change people, and make them think differently. Pansy and I - and everyone in this room, I guess - have managed to escape their grasp. I was willing to put up with it, I'm very patient that way, but then those girls did something that pushed me to the edge." Edwina leaned forward, clutching the podium with white knuckled hands. "They... they made our head of house into that- that- that moronic, ignorant, horrible, empty headed, pretty boy. They're messing with us," she hissed, her eyes pale slits. "And they've gone too far.

"So, I took charge. I had already notice that they all seem to clear out one night a week at around the same time; late at night. I followed one of them, whose name I cannot recall, and discovered that they have been going to these... weekly meetings."

***

"The rough spots in question are responsible for the death of two of our own. This cannot be overlooked. We cannot shrug this off, as I had originally hoped. A few students, who seem to be impervious to our influence, have formed some kind of little resistance group." More murmurs. "Unfortunately, we are not exactly certain how many people are in this group, how much they have planned or how strong they are." She paused dramatically. "But I have the strong suspicion that they are weak and disorganized. And you can trust my intuition, as I am a seer after all." She smiled briefly.

***

"They're like a... a club or something. They discuss things like singing, and angsting and they make these... these plans. I overheard how they had made plans to change Granger and the Weasley girl. I even saw them there, giving reports on their progress. They acted like changing every day was a routine thing. They didn't talk like Granger or Weasley; they talked like... like those girls. I don't know how to put it." She paused, collecting her thoughts. "They talked as if they were things that have possessed Granger and Weasley. You should've heard it." She shook her head ruefully.

***

"But I worry. Perhaps needlessly. Perhaps these silly children are just lucky. It would not surprise me." Polaris smiled benevolently. "But even so, I will always worry. They may start small, but who knows what they could grow into. Who knows how organized they could become."

"Who cares!?" a brave voice spoke up in the silence. The crowd parted to reveal Virginia "Ginny" Weasley. Her hair was a mass of blood red curls and her eyes a brilliant green. "We're better than they are! They could never become a threat to us!"

Polaris watched her with a slight smile. "Ah, Virginia. Your confidence, although admirable, is tragic. We once believed ourselves to be unstoppable, unbeatable, but things have changed," Polaris eyes flashed darkly. "Haven't they?"

***

"They want to move in; they want to take Hogwarts from us and they don't want to share." Edwina finished grimly and stared out at the silent crowd. She glanced over and saw the Smith boy nod. She stepped down from the podium and stood beside Pansy, who gave her an encouraging smile.

Zacharias stepped up to the podium.

"So there's that." he said. "These girls want Hogwarts and they don't want any trouble from us, but they're going to be surprised, aren't they?"

***

"This place is our home now," Polaris called out to the crowd, who murmured and began clapping in agreement. Megan watched impassively but her amber eyes blazed in the shadows. "And we must fight for our home. We must stomp out these rough spots. We must take command! This is our home now! We aren't going to wander anymore! We've come, we've seen, and we will conquer!"

The crowd erupted into cheers and vigorous applause. Many were talking animatedly to their neighbors. All had a look of determination in their rainbow eyes.

Megan too, but for different reasons.

***

"But, as Edwina said, they are organized and they outnumber us greatly. Anyone with eyes can see that clearly. In turn, we will have to become more organized and we must stick together. In these times of trial, the most important thing is loyalty! Not just to each other, but to our fallen comrades, to the people we once knew, and to Hogwarts! Hogwarts is our home and no one, not these girls and not even He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named can take that away from us! We will fight them!"

The crowd erupted into applause, but Elizabeth held back.

"Fallen comrades," she said sadly under her breath. Alex glanced questioningly at her.

"How?" Asked one of the Ravenclaw girls after the applause died down. Zacharias hesitated.

"The purifying spell has worked well for us in the past," he began warily.

"Yeah, but you've only used it twice," the inquisitive Ravenclaw interrupted. "How do we know it'll work in every situation? How do we know that wasn't a fluke?"

"We don't," Hannah spoke up from behind Zacharias. "But it's all we've got right now."

"But we'll get more, which is what I was trying to get to." Zacharias glared at the offending girl for a moment before continuing. "We need to find out their weaknesses and how to get rid of them, and for that I plan to establish a group of researchers. They will study the transfer students, observe their behaviors, and research possible spells to destroy them." A few members of the crowd started murmuring with excitement. "If you would like to apply for a position in this group, please see Daniel Conti, the Ravenclaw who's standing over there, waving.

There will be another group designated for the purpose of the actual destroying of the transfer students."

Alex perked up at this. So did many others, as another, louder murmur ran through the crowd.

"I assume there will be a great deal more applications for a position in this group and that's fine." he said, silencing the talk immediately. "We'll need many volunteers, but please keep in mind when you apply that you will be facing very dangerous individuals and they will be..." he hesitated. "Well, people. You must ask yourself if you have the constitution to face someone who you plan to... get rid of. You must also ask yourself if you think you are quick enough and are talented enough with the wand to win duels. And not just regular duels between two wizards, but strange duels were fire shoots from fingertips and an animal familiar or a boyfriend always lurks nearby, ready to tear your face off. I would suggest some form of training, but I doubt we have that kind of time."

By now the entire room was filled with excited whispers. Yes, it would look like there would be no shortage of people willing to destroy the transfer students.

Alex shooed some third years from the couch and flopped down, Elizabeth following suit after her.

"It sounds exciting, doesn't it?" Elizabeth asked.

"It does, but I wonder how many people actually listened to Zach's speech? I mean, I don't think it'll be easy to.. well... take care of someone." Alex said, resting her head on the arm of the couch and curling up.

"You did it." Elizabeth pointed out, missing Alex's wince. "And then you ate her."

Alex didn't respond.

"Hey guys," Sara greeted, emerging from the throng of people. "Wasn't that a great meeting? I'm going to be apart of the researchers. Zacharias has already confirmed it." she said proudly. "I assume you're going to join the attack squad, Alex?"

Alex sighed. "Yeah, probably."

Sara frowned. "I would have thought you would be more enthusiastic than that."

"Alex is being moody and tortured," Elizabeth said wisely.

"I am not being moody and tortured." she said irritably. "I'm just... having an attack of conscience." she said vaguely. "It'll pass."

"I hope so," Elizabeth said sympathetically. "Because you'd make a great killer."

"Thanks," she said flatly.

"Being a part of the attack squad would be interesting," Sara said thoughtfully.

"It would be kind of cool. It'd be like being an assassin." Alex said, grinning slightly.

"Plus, all the taffy you could eat!" Elizabeth said. She started giggling until Alex threw a pillow at her.

***

In the darkness of the Ravenclaw common room, a teen with golden tresses, sat poised at the edge of a couch, outlined by the soft, flickering light of the fireplace. Her head was buried in her hands, and a soft muttering escaped from her perfect, pink lips.

The tapestry was flung aside then, and a gaggle of girls entered, all chatting excitedly. One of them saw the tormented figure and detached from the group, flouncing over to the deep blue couch.

"Hello Luna dear," she trilled. "You should have come to tonight's meeting, you know." she leaned down to try and see Luna's face. "Oh my," she whispered. "Are we having another bad turn? You poor thing. There, there." She rested one finely manicured hand on Luna's shoulder. The teen instantly relaxed under her touch. "It's because of dad, isn't it? He was always so cruel to us... wasn't he?" Her nails dug into the white fabric of Luna's uniform.

Luna shrugged off the hand and sat back against the couch, her eyes looking opalescent in the firelight. "Yes," she whispered. "That's what's wrong with me."

The girl gave her a sympathetic smile and threw her arms around Luna's form. "Don't worry, my dear Luna. You'll always have me, your dear twin, Solaria."

Point! What's Your Point?
#8 Trick or Treat, N00b.
by Jeff A. Van Booven

In just a few days many members of our esteemed younger generations will dress up in costumes and go door to door in order to extort you out of your hard earned candy. Other members of a slightly older generation will be out to render damages to your property. And even older members of what we will call generation whipper-snapper will go to somebody else's house and get drunk, therefore they are not really important to this article and, as such, can generally be ignored (accepting of course that you don't have a teenage daughter in this age group, but that's your problem not mine).

However, with this lovely article I will introduce you to some simple steps that you can take to protect yourself this Halloween using products you can pick up from your local hardware store, military base, or any other place where high explosives are sold. While some of these methods may be considered illegal in some, if not all states, they are all a matter of self-defense. Lets face it, these whipper-snappers don't want to pay for your social security, and they need to be learned their place.

First on our list of things to consider is prevention. What better way to protect yourself from their onslaught than making them not wanting to screw with you in the first place. And what better way to scare them the hell off than by littering your lawn with decapitated woodland creatures? It also makes a good use for all those rabbits, squirrels, and other vermin that have been trying to destroy your garden.

Next, because we know that woodland creatures won't be enough, dig yourself up some half decayed human corpses. Accept no substitute for the real thing. Plus, if you want to get real creative, they can double as zombies, but then somebody might wisen up and shotgun them, which would make an awful mess.

Also, if you live in a real bad neighborhood you may want to defecate all over your lawn. It may stink and take a while to finish, but when you think about it, it will be suffering well spent. After all, it isn't the effect that matters, it's the besting of the whipper-snappers that is more important. Winning isn't everything, but total annihilation of the competition is.

Now, on the off chance, people may yet not be deterred by your efforts. This is why we move on to the next step, loss prevention. However, to begin with, you need to add a sign to your yard. "All trespassers will be shot, maimed, shot again, burned, shot, and mutilated. And shot."

There is, however, one universally accepted way to take care of people walking on your land. We commonly refer to it as land mines, but to be more specific, anti-personnel mines. Now, there is two ways you can go about this. You can use smaller mines like the Chinese type 72 or the American M-14, which will subsequently only do minor damage to the target whipper-snapper's lower extremities. This course of action can only mean one thing, which is that you are a wimp who wants to get your candy stolen. I personally suggest you go with a much more lethal device, the fragmentation mine. Designed to maim, incapacitate, or kill you just can't go wrong with one of these babies.

We can't depend solely upon the stupidity of generation whipper-snapper alone to kill them, plus it is hard to lay mines in concrete. This is where my next suggest comes in. This is where I suggest a howitzer. What better way to stop unwanted trick or treaters than by nailing them with shells from thirty-thousand meters away? If that doesn't stop them, then why not get yourself the Canadian 1st Infantry Division. It isn't like they're doing much of anything anyways.

Some of you may want to take things a bit more into your own hands. There is always the classic but cliche chainsaw, which is always fun. Also, if you want to get a bit creative you can fashion your own festive punji sticks that can be used to liven up your Halloween decorations. Pumpkins rigged with napalm will also allow you to set any would be extortionist aglow in a very befitting manner.

Should, however, they manage to avoid your defenses and arrive at your door I suggest nothing less than depleted uranium shells fired at point blank range. Follow this up with as many blasts from a shotgun as you deem appropriate; the more the better. If you are not able to stop them, consider pre-placing snipers on surrounding rooftops.

If after all this they still manage to steal your candy there is only one true and feasible option to use: The AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter. Armed with not only a M230 30mm automatic cannon it comes equipped with Hellfire, Aim-92, and Aim-9 missiles. And, if that wasn't enough, it also comes with Hydra 70 rockets. If you can't bring down generation whipper-snapper with this bad boy, then you don't deserve your candy.

These are just a few cheap and simple steps that you can take this Halloween to ensure that your stash of candy will be protected from the dastardly generation whipper-snapper who will stop at nothing to see your reserves depleted. This year don't let candy theft happen to you. Also, for the kids, always stay in well lit areas, only visit houses with their lights on. Have your parents inspect all your candy before you eat any and always stay outside even if you are invited in. Have a fun, happy, and safe Halloween.

Until next time, keep generation whipper-snapper off my lawn.



Code of the Ninja
Courtesy of The One and Only Jahoclave

5 - ninja ninja ninja ninja ninja - The ninja approves of this; failure to cohere with the ninja's decision is a grave mistake.
4 - ninja ninja ninja ninja - The ninja enjoys this, but he finds flaws.
3 - ninja ninja ninja - The ninja would rather date your sister, but since you may not have one he will take this instead.
2 - ninja ninja - The ninja warns you that he was only marginally impressed.
1 - ninja - If proper confession is made, the ninja will forgive you for taking part in this.
0 - xp - If you are looking for an invigorating experience I would suggest poking your eye out before this; the ninja does not approve.



Editor's Note: We're currently lacking in submissions for this department, so feel free to type up a little review (using the ninja's code, of course) to be published for the next issue! Books, music, anime, just about anything goes! So hop on that shiny soapbox already, my critical friend, I know you have something to say...



Movie Review: Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Directed by Steve Box and Nick Park
by Alicemae

And Alice is off to the theaters again! This time I empty my poor student's wallet for an evening of good, old-fashioned claymation. Believe it or not, I had never heard of dear Wallace or Gromit until that night, and I'm still berating myself for living under my silly rock this whole time. Mere animated clay may they be, but for me finally meeting this pair was simply too delightful for words.

Wallace, the cheeshound of Einstein inventors, and Gromit, his loyal yet cleverly silent sidekick, run the town's Anti-Pesto service for the veggie-lovin' locals and their prized gardens. Meanwhile, the local rabbits are always looking for a tasty carrot to munch on, making them public enemy number one amongst the rabid gardeners. However, thanks to Wallace's brilliantly wacky Bun-Vac invention, Anti-Pesto is able to humanely enforce pest control by sucking bunnies into a gravity-defying vacuum, then taking 'em home as pets. Thus, Anti-Pesto becomes a good friend for both veggie gluttons and growers alike.

Although, not all can be well in this gory tale of hungry rabbits and overgrown vegetables.

Of course, the trouble begins when a well-intentioned experiment goes very wrong, and the town is suddenly terrorized by a giant Were-Rabbit just days before Lady Tottington's 517th annual Giant Vegetable Fete. Chaos ensues as green houses are crushed in a single hop, and crazed bunny tunnels destroy gradens of gigantic pumpkins and ridiculously large melons. Toss in a love story between Wallace and Lady T, her trigger-happy suitor, a pup on mission to save his master, an unlikely suspect, and you'll find yourself laughing until carrots come out your nose. Okay, well -- admittedly, bad analogy on my part! But, trust me, if you're in the mood for a kiddie flick with both charm and wit enough for the mummies and daddies, then wait for the Corpse Bride DVD to come out at Blockbuster's, and simply go see this instead!

...Pretty please? With a block of cheese?

4 - ninja ninja ninja ninja - for Characters
3 - ninja ninja ninja - for Storyline
4 - ninja ninja ninja ninja - for Style
3 - ninja ninja ninja - for Substance
3.5 - ninja ninja ninja 1/2 - for The Numchucks



The Badger Brigade
Chapter Seven: The Madness of Miss Lovegood
by Hemp Fandango

Author's Note: I sure didn't see that one coming.
Editor's Note: For more of this series, please visit the author's personal thread. Click: ]http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9642164&page=1

There was going to be another Badger Brigade meeting that night. News spread quickly through the house and soon everyone was buzzing with information. By now, most had heard about the Suzaku debacle and how the most of the Slytherin class vanished.

At first, some people (Alex) hoped that the class was turned to taffy with Suzaku. This was not so, as Polaris and her cronies were seen healthy and mopey as ever the next day at breakfast.

"This is not encouraging," Alex griped from her seat at the Hufflepuff table, as Polaris and the rest flounced past.

"Try not to think about it," Sara advised. "Just try to think about the meeting tonight."

"Why? I'm not the one who has to make another presentation to the whole house and some Slytherins." Alex said. "How's the speech coming, anyway?"

Much to Alex's disappointment, Sara did not flinch. She continued to cut her toast into soldiers, unperturbed. "Actually, I'm not speaking at all tonight. Those sixth year Slytherin girls will be doing most of the speaking."

"Glad to hear it." Alex commented while buttering her own piece of toast.

"It's a blessing, really." Sara went on. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not a very good public speaker."

"You? Not a good public speaker? Why, I never." Alex said, spraying toast crumbs everywhere and grinning.

Elizabeth frowned and brushed herself clean of toast debris. "You really shouldn't talk with your mouth full, Alex..." she trailed off suddenly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something gold and shining. She looked up and saw-

"Oh no," she moaned. "It can't be..."

"What?" Sara asked, craning her neck to see what had caught Elizabeth's attention.

"Isn't that... Loony Lovegood?" Alex said, squinting at the figure in the distance. Elizabeth turned away.

"Where?!" Sara demanded, her interest perked.

"Over there! At the Ravenclaw table!" Alex gestured vaguely in the direction of the blue-clad table.

"What are we looking for?" Hannah asked, leaning over.

"Loony Lovegood. She's become one of Them."

"I don't see her," Sara whined.

"Use your eyes," Alex said annoyed. "Look, she's the one with waist length golden-blond hair, like a river of sunlight."

Sara rose from her seat to get a better look. "There's at least three people like that. Be more specific."

Alex rolled her eyes.

"I see her! I see her!" Susan cried enthusiastically.

Sara sighed and fell back into her seat. "That's another down," she muttered, pulling off her glasses and rubbing them with her cloak. "I wish I knew why. Why go for Lovegood? There are better looking girls in her year alone..." Another sigh.

"Another one bites the dust," said Alex.

They watched Luna in silence for a few seconds, taking in her new appearance.

"Huh," said Hannah. Then, they all went back to eating breakfast.

Except Elizabeth. Her gaze slid off of the beautiful creature that was supposed to be Luna Lovegood and the person sitting next to her. Her hair was such a dark black that it shone blue in the light and flowed down her shoulders to her waist. Her skin was alabaster white, much paler than Luna's, but even from her distance, Elizabeth could tell there was a strong resemblance between the two girls.

That was strange... but then, what wasn't strange anymore? Nothing made sense these days. Logic flew out the window long ago.

Elizabeth sighed and stared down at her plate, picking despondently at her scrambled eggs. Yes, she reflected, it was only a matter of time before Luna gave into... whatever it was. Not even Granger could escape it.

"Maybe no one can escape it," she whispered dramatically.

"Escape what?" Sara asked mildly, while holding her lenses up to the light.

"This... epidemic thing." Elizabeth said, gesturing vaguely. "I mean, first Granger, then Weasley, then Luna."

"So Loony Lovegood got hit with the weird disease. Big deal. It's not like she's a great loss to the cause." Alex pointed out drily.

"Hmm..." Sara said, as she slowly lowered her glasses. "Why was Luna targeted? For that matter, why was Granger and Ginny? I mean, so far it's really just them, right?"

"Not exactly," Alex said shrugging. "A few boys have been acting weird. Snape for example. And, uh... Well, actually, Snape is the worst example I can think of."

"Harry's been acting differently too," Hannah said, turning to face the fifth years fully. "He used to be quite nice... Er, most of the time. He was sort of stroppy last year."

"Yeah," Susan added. "He's been kind of distant and spooky, lately. At first we thought it was normal because it was similar to how he acted last year, but now he's starting to get snotty and cruel and more than a little schitzo. He swings back and forth from attitude to attitude." Susan shook her head sadly. "Sometimes he's nice, sometimes he's a jerk."

"Harry...?" Sara's eyes narrowed as she squinted in the distance. "I wonder... the connection between Lovegood, Granger, and Ginny. Maybe it's him. Maybe he's the reason... Maybe he's the center..." she trailed off, staring hard into nothing.

Alex and Elizabeth stared at their friend. Alex rolled her eyes and went back to eating, but Elizabeth felt she was starting to understand what Sara was talking about.

Susan, too, was beginning to understand. "I think I get what you're getting at," Susan said, a slow smile creeping on her face.

"Yeah, yeah, Granger was one of his good friends, right?" Sara said excitedly.

"And everyone knows Ginny used to have a crush on him!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

"And Lovegood..." Here Sara faltered. "Lovegood..."

"Luna was in the DA with us last year," Susan said helpfully, her eyes bright with excitement.

"Oh my God, that's it!" Sara said, smiling like a loon. "It's all Harry Potter's fault!"

"Is it?" Alex, who had been quietly eating during the production, said mildly. "Zacharias will be pleased to hear that."

Sara ignored her, laughing to herself. "I can't believe we missed it! It all makes sense! Look how many of those things are in Gryffindor!" She jabbed her finger at the scarlet table.

An excited buzzing started along the table. News was spreading quickly.

Sara laughed, shaking her head. "I can't believe I missed it before. Man, I'm losing my touch."

"Yeah, but what about the Slytherins?" Alex said, putting down her fork and pushing her plate away. "There's a huge number in Slytherin, too."

"I bet it's because of Malfoy," Hannah said knowingly. "They hang off of him like barnacles. Malfoy's pretty close to Harry, too. Er. In a violent enemy kind of way."

"Same with Snape," Susan added.

Sara was bouncing up and down in her seat, smiling still. "I can't believe I didn't notice it before," she sang. "It's so obvious, ha ha ha..."

Elizabeth gave Sara a tired smile. She turned to ask Alex about what she thought, but the short haired girl was staring hard at the Slytherin table.

"What's up?" Elizabeth asked, following her gaze.

"Polaris." Alex answered out of the corner of her mouth. "She looks really angry."

Indeed, the violet eyed beauty was looking venomously at Sara. One of her friends whispered something into her ear and Polaris nodded, smirking unpleasantly.

"I don't think you should've had your revelation so loud, Sara," Alex said darkly. "They heard you."

"What...?" Sara stopped her little jig, and glanced over to the Slytherin table. Polaris was now indulging in a favourite activity of hers; tossing her hair over her shoulder. She gave Sara a quick, sharp glance, causing the Hufflepuff to flinch. For a brief moment it felt like her insides had been filled with ice. Her excitement drained along with the colour in her face.

"Big deal," she said quietly, with a forced casual look. "They would have found out eventually."

"I'm not sure I follow that logic," Alex said. "I, for one, would have liked having an element of surprise, even a brief one."

Sara looked uneasy. "Yes, well..."

"At least we still have the home advantage," Elizabeth said cheerfully.

"Yeah," Alex mumbled, her eyes fixed on Polaris. "But for how much longer?"

***

The day passed with unease. The usual slew of mindless lessons - complete with the mindless slew of the new students turning into various animals, controlling various elements, or having some kind of mental break-down through song - had finally finished for the day.

Most students decided to skip dinner and head straight to the Hufflepuff common room. Sara, Hannah, Susan, Ernie, Katherine, and, of course, Zacharias all went to the common room to prepare the night's meeting. Sara, who only had to introduce those nasty Slytherins, was feeling ill at ease. The look Polaris had given her at breakfast lingered in her memory. After the meeting she planned to have a lie down somewhere.

But not yet. She forcibly pushed the image of Polaris from her mind and focused on what she was planning. She knew that with the Taffy Girls greatly outnumbered their small group, and she also knew that they wouldn't be able to defeat them if the BB - as she and others were starting to call it - didn't work as a team. She glanced down at the designs she had sketched out on the scrap of parchment.

It would be a lot of hard work, she thought. Work that would require all of her rather vast knowledge of spells and enchantments, and it would give them a great edge, but would cost her a number of sleepless nights filled with amazingly complicated problems. She sighed happily. Even Polaris couldn't ruin that for her.

Polaris...

"Hey, Sara," Hannah said from behind, causing Sara to jump. "Er, we've heard about that Polaris girl and that she might have something planned for you." She craned her neck as she spoke, trying to get a look at the piece of parchment Sara was hurriedly stuffing into her robes.

"Yes," Sara said in a voice higher pitched than usual. "Yes, well, I'm not too worried. It's all just a silly little tiff, ha ha ha..." she spoke over the sound of her heart pounding.

"Right," Hannah said. "Well, the others and I would just like you to know that we, er, "got your back" as the kids say."

Sara blinked. "Really?"

Hannah smiled, a little strangely. "Yeah, of course. We're friends, right? I mean, we've really gotten to know each other lately and we wouldn't want to see you get in trouble with those crazy taffy girls."

Sara smiled gratefully.

"What are you working on?" Hannah asked.

Her look of happiness was replaced by a look of discomfort. "Um, well... It's complicated-"

Just then, the other members of the Badger Brigade arrived, providing a much appreciated distraction.

***

Alex filed in with the rest of the crowd, which was much larger than the last time they had a meeting. There were many more students attending tonight, and they weren't all Hufflepuffs.

The two Slytherin girls - Malfoy's slut and her crony - were towards the front of the crowd, chatting idly while those two trolls - Crabbe and the other one - stood around them like body guards.

There was also a handful of Ravenclaws in attendance, including their Seeker, Cho or something. She was talking worriedly with a few of her giggly friends. There was also that Italian boy Zacharias liked. Whatshisface. Ah, it didn't matter.

And, lastly, there were even some Gryffindors, much to Alex's surprise. There was only two of them, however. One was a blonde, freckled seventh year girl Alex vaguely recognized and the other was Neville Longbottom. Susan and Justin came over a few seconds later to talk to Neville, looking somber. A few moments later, the Cho girl timidly approached them and joined their conversation.

"I think Justin mentioned that they were all in that "dah" thing together," Elizabeth said.

Despite the large crowd, Alex and Elizabeth were given a wide breadth. News of Alex's cannibalism had spread quickly to the other houses.

"I hope they start soon," Alex muttered impatiently. She glanced over and caught sight of a third year staring at her owlishly at her. When she decided to return the favour, the third year looked alarmed and scurried away into the crowd. Alex swore under her breath.

"I would've thought you'd like scaring kids," Elizabeth remarked innocently.

"It gets really old, really fast." Alex said sourly.

***

In another, much quieter part of the castle, the caretaker, Argus Filch, stalked the halls with his dusty cat at his heels. Since the year began, for the first time in his employment history, he had made a point to avoid all students at all times. It just wasn't worth it anymore.

Not since that sorting ceremony that dragged into the early morning hours. Those girls, he knew, were trouble. They had done something to the Headmaster, something very strange. Filch had tried to complain to Dumbledore about the way a few of those new students had treated him and Mrs. Norris but the Headmaster had just given him a blank smile and some empty words about "misunderstandings" and "extenuating circumstances". Whatever that was supposed to mean.

Since then, Filch hadn't bothered with his usual tormenting of students. It just wasn't worth his time anymore. All those girls had sucked the fun out of it. Useless, vicious, little buggers all of them.

Almost all of them. There was the issue of Megan to consider.

She came the same night as the rest of the girls, and Filch was positive she was one of them. She came up to him in silence, and claimed to be his long-lost niece, showing him a letter from her parents - two people who Filch had never heard of in his life. The letter requested that Megan be shown the ways of Care taking from Filch. It wasn't as if - the letter had said - that she could do much else with her life. She was, after all, a squib.

Yes, just because she and Filch happened to share the same unfortunate "problem", she had to be foisted off on him. She didn't seem very pleased with the arrangement either, although it was hard to tell with that girl. Filch had quickly sent her to work, stating clearly that he didn't want to have to clean up after her. He had expected her to make his job harder. He couldn't have been more wrong.

She was a natural cleaner. She used the mop and bucket like a master. She took to cleaning like a fish to water. She could clean nearly everything, she knew various home formulas to get out even the toughest stains. Even the room splattered with taffy had been sparkling by morning. She was the best he had ever seen.

And she was a good girl, he thought grudgingly. She kept to herself and did what she told. She also seemed to hate the students as much as Filch did, which made her decent company.

"Uncle?" a soft voice from behind jostled Filch from his thoughts. He turned to face her. She was staring up at him with her big, amber eyes. Her soft, curly hair was tied tightly back in a high ponytail, with one lone tendril escaping at the front. She wore a dark, denim vest, brightly decorated with various buttons, over an olive green long-sleeved shirt with a faded silver star on the front. She wore a pair of loose jeans, held up with a brown belt.

"What have I told you about sneaking up on me like that?" he snapped.

"Sorry, uncle." she said automatically.

"You could give an old man a heart attack, doing something like that." he went on.

"Sorry, uncle."

"Fine, fine. What is it you want?" he asked while returning to his mopping.

"I just wanted to tell you that I've finished my chores," the halls beyond her gleamed, "and I'd like to vanish for about two hours to do something unsuspicious."

"Fine, fine." he said. "But if I discover you've shirked one responsibility, I'll string you up by your thumbs."

"Yes, uncle." she said dutifully. She trudged off in the opposite direction without another word.

***

The meeting had been called to order and some Hufflepuff twit was taking a roll call.

"This is so lame." Edwina observed.

Pansy paused in the task of filing her nails. "Lame as in unable to walk?"

Edwina rolled her eyes. "Yes," she said sarcastically. "That's exactly it. Lame as in unable to walk."

She, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle had been standing as close to the podium as they could manage and Edwina had passed the time by smirking evilly at the brown haired, nervous looking fifth year girl who stood next to Bones and Abbot. They had occasionally made eye contact and Edwina made sure to give the younger girl the meanest, smuggest look she could manage. That had been fun for a while but it was starting to get old.

Pansy, who had finished her nails and was moving on to retouching her make-up, just shrugged. "Just be patient, Edwina. You must be patient and cunning and so forth, otherwise the transfer students win and no one wants that."

There was a small pause. "I might," Crabbe rumbled.

"No one cares, Vincent dear." Pansy said absently while peering at her compact and carefully curling her eyelashes.

"Where did you get that curler from, anyway?" Edwina asked, frowning.

Pansy shrugged lightly. "Mmmm... I found it."

"Found it or stole it from the purse of one of those girls?"

"Hm. Now that I think about it, I think it was the latter." She said faintly.

"See, this is why we're friends. It's because of stuff like this."

***

Sara frowned at the crowd. That Slytherin girl had been giving her the oddest looks. 'I wonder if she's nauseous? Or maybe... ew, maybe she's hitting on me.' Sara's eyes widened with panic. 'Oh lord, that would be awkward.'

"So what was it you were doing earlier with the parchment?" Hannah whispered to Sara while Katherine started to recite the minutes from the last meeting.

"I'll tell you later," Sara replied just as quietly. "Er, what do you think of those Slytherins you invited?"

Hannah shrugged. "They're Slytherins. Not quite as nasty as they think they are, but unpleasant enough. Why?"

Sara shifted uncomfortably. "Just curious," she muttered.

***

In another part of the castle, in an expansive, gorgeous room behind an equally gorgeous statue, another meeting was taking place.

The room was yet again filled with beautiful, shapely figures, all chatting amicably. The various reflections from the mirrors and shimmering hair coupled with the echoing sound of hundreds of musical voices made the room almost dizzying.

'It's like one of those torture rooms,' Megan thought grimly as she stalked her way through the crowd. 'The ones where they blast heavy metal music while dumping freezing water on you, and so forth.' Her scrawny black cat trailed after her, sparing enough time to leer at the passing, sleek female cat of which there were hundreds.

The sound of wings thundered above as many different kinds of birds - ravens, owls, and Phoenixes mostly - flew above, chattering almost as loudly as their mistresses. A few girls had little dragons with jeweled scales perched on their shoulders. Needle sharp teeth glinted from a particular nasty looking opalescent one, sitting on the shoulder of a young dark haired man, two katanas strapped to his back and wearing a heavy looking, black trench coat over black clothes.

Megan stopped here. "Hey," she said in greeting. "I've never seen you around before. What's your name?" The young man glanced at her impassively.

"Konnichiwa stranger," he said in a hard voice. "I have many names-"

"Don't we all?" said a girl dressed in a rich violet and gold kimono. Her deep violet eyes glittered soulfully in the silver moonlight while her sleek black hair was held back in a high pony tail, worn in the style of samurai. Two black, cat-like ears poked out of her head, just as two gleaming white fangs were visible at each corner of her Sakura petal pink lips. A midnight black tail flicked back and forth behind her. "I have at least six names, but I am mostly called Megamino Kuroneko. I am a hanyou from Japan." adding helpfully, "That means I'm a half-demon."

"That's fascinating."Megan said while picking the grime out of her nails.

"As I was saying," the boy continued, shooting Kuroneko a dark look. "I have many names, but I do not recall what my true name is. I have adopted the name Dark Falcon or just Falcon. I awoke with amnesia at the steps of a monastary in Japan over ten years ago and was trained by the monks in every form of martial arts. I have a strange skill; I wield mastery over any form of blade-"

"What?" asked Kuroneko. "Even the scimitar?"

"Especially the scimitar," Falcon said darkly. He took a deep breath and went on, "Anyway, two years ago all the monks were brutally slaughtered by Death Eaters and I was the sole survivor. I vowed revenge against Voldemort - yes, I said his name - and from that day forward dedicated my life to killing him and his followers. Before I set out on my quest, my Sensei gave me these mystical blades-"

"I thought you said they all died," Kuroneko said suspiciously.

"Oh, they totally did," Falcon said quickly. "But my Sensei was struck with a mortal wound and he managed to stay alive just long enough to give me these katanas and then he died."

"That was thoughtful of him," Megan said, raising an eyebrow.

"Anyway, I found out that the only reason Voldemort attacked my monastery is because of these katanas. They are nigh unbreakable and one holds the strength of darkness while the other holds the light. They are the yin and the yang swords, and Voldemort wants them." He reached back and grasped the handle of the blade, closing his tortured ice blue eyes briefly. He opened them again, staring hard at Kuroneko, looking moody.

"Why?" Megan asked.

Falcon whirled around to face Megan. It looked as if he had forgotten she was there.

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't he want them? They hold unimaginable powers of destruction and ruin!" He exclaimed dramatically.

"Yes, but so does Voldemort." Megan pointed out. "He has a wand." She added helpfully. "Last I checked, wands can wield great damage, and, in fact, a wand would be even more dangerous than a sword. A sword can only cut and slice; and wand can do anything."

Falcon stared at her a moment, mentally processing this information. He blinked and turned away from her, back to face Kuroneko, forgetting the last ten seconds.

"Voldemort took everything from me," he went on dramatically. "Even my precious Himeko-chan..."

Megan sighed. 'I brought that on myself.'

'I liked it,' a scratchy voice said in her head. 'I like hearing their silly little stories. It's free entertainment.' Megan looked down at her feet, where her scrawny black cat sat. He looked back up at her, grinning a Chesire grin, teeth fully bared and it's blank, bulbous yellow eyes staring up at her.

'Save your "serial killer" look for someone who's still scared by it, Muffins.' she thought-spoke to him.

'Muffins?' came an incredulous female voice. 'You named that monstrosity Muffins?'

'Mr Muffins, actually.' Megan said back. 'Who is this?'

'I am Lyric Malfoy-Potter, daughter of Lucius Malfoy and James Potter.' came the haughty reply.

'Well, Lyric, this is a private line. Keep your nose out of it.' Megan replied.

'Fine,' came the huffy response. 'I can't help being telepathic, you know...' The voice and presence faded from her mind.

'I hate it when I pick up stray signals.'

'You should get a better long distance service.' Muffins said, stretching at her feet.

'Shut up.'

***

Pansy and Edwina had finally been called to the podium to deliver their speeches. Edwina smirked in triumph as the silly fifth year she had been terrorizing gave her a panicked look and sidled away from her... and right into mount. Goyle.

"Sorry," he mumbled as Sara turned to give him a look of alarm.

"It's alright," she said cautiously.

"All right then, everyone pay attention and look at me," Pansy called out to the silent crowd. "Right then," she said after a pause. "Some of you may have heard about the little event we had with Professor Suzaku. Some of you may have heard about how amazingly Persia and I handled it."

Someone snickered in the back of the crowd.

"Anyway," Pansy went on. "Persia had, at great personal risk, infiltrated the, um, ladies secret cabal the other night. She found out a great deal of things which she will now explain to us at great, exhausting detail. Persia?"

***

Polaris stepped up to the stage. She paused, looking out over the vast crowd of like-minded ladies. Everything have been going so well. There was music in the halls, Phoenixes circling the castle, suicide and/or rape attempts in the bathrooms, and make out sessions in the Astronomy Tower. She smiled charmingly, displaying her pearly whites to the world. Two scythe-like fangs glinted in the soft, silvery light of the room. Things couldn't have been going any better, and shook out her shining ebony hair in celebration.

"Ladies, ladies." she called out, her melodic voice carrying across the massive marble hall. The crowd was silent immediately. Polaris treated them to her radiant smile. "Thank you. Now, I'm sure you're all wondering why I called this meeting to order." Multi-colored heads nodded. "It is because of the recent... unpleasantness. I'm certain you are all aware of the unfortunate fate of our dearly departed Kiyone Suzaku, former professor of Martial Arts. Oh, speaking of which a replacement teacher has already been acquired and I would like to thank our dear Professor Celeste Black for arranging that so quickly. You are a shining example to us all with your amazing organizational abilities." Polaris paused. "Where was I again...?"

***

Edwina stepped up to the podium looking pained but fashionable. "Thank you, Pansy," she said graciously. "As my dear colleague here has mentioned, I alone infiltrated the transfer students' secret meeting. You see, the Slytherin house has been taking a beating lately. Strange girls dressed in leather have taken over, and made the common room into their own personal soap opera/make out cabana. I'm sure you have seen it too, but not on the personal scale Pansy and I have seen it. People you once thought you knew acting... acting like lunatics. I mean, I'm sure even you people have noticed what's happening. Take, for example, Draco Malfoy-"

"Please," Alex whispered. Elizabeth giggled softly.

"I'm sure you all know how he used to act-" The crowd started mumbling. Yes, they knew how he acted They had a number of colourful adjectives to apply to his actions. "-he used to be above everyone. He used to be refined, he used to be an example to all Slytherins, he used to be..." She trailed off in the sight of the blank looks the crowd was giving her. Pansy was nodding along behind her, eyes shining. "Well, he may not have seemed like that to people in other houses. Or to most of the people in Slytherin for that matter, either." She paused. "To tell you the truth, he was always a twit. I mean, you'd think that now that he was older he would have gotten some better "zingers" but he just seems to be recycling the same-" Pansy cleared her throat audibly and pointedly. "Even so," Edwina plowed on. "He was our twit, dammit.

"But now... now, he's some kind of leather pants wearing, thrusting, skeevy, limp wristed, sex maniac. Sometimes he wears make up. Not even good make up, but electric blue lipstick. That is not the behavior of a sane person, I tell you." Pansy sniffed loudly and dabbed at her eyes.

***

"Please do not misunderstand me," Polaris said. "I am happy with the way things are going. After all this time, I think we may have finally found a place to put up our feet, so to speak. Everything is changed because of us, and do you think it was easy?" The crowd started murmuring. "I don't think so! It took a great deal of effort, but together we did it!"

There was more excited murmuring. In the back of the crowd Megan remained silent while soft noise erupted around her.

"But even though this place seems perfect, we must realise there's going to be the occasional rough spot." she continued grimly.

***

Edwina took a deep breath and continued warily. "Draco is just one of many examples of what's gone wrong with the Slytherin house and, to a lesser extent, the school. We all know it's because of those thing-girls. They change people, and make them think differently. Pansy and I - and everyone in this room, I guess - have managed to escape their grasp. I was willing to put up with it, I'm very patient that way, but then those girls did something that pushed me to the edge." Edwina leaned forward, clutching the podium with white knuckled hands. "They... they made our head of house into that- that- that moronic, ignorant, horrible, empty headed, pretty boy. They're messing with us," she hissed, her eyes pale slits. "And they've gone too far.

"So, I took charge. I had already notice that they all seem to clear out one night a week at around the same time; late at night. I followed one of them, whose name I cannot recall, and discovered that they have been going to these... weekly meetings."

***

"The rough spots in question are responsible for the death of two of our own. This cannot be overlooked. We cannot shrug this off, as I had originally hoped. A few students, who seem to be impervious to our influence, have formed some kind of little resistance group." More murmurs. "Unfortunately, we are not exactly certain how many people are in this group, how much they have planned or how strong they are." She paused dramatically. "But I have the strong suspicion that they are weak and disorganized. And you can trust my intuition, as I am a seer after all." She smiled briefly.

***

"They're like a... a club or something. They discuss things like singing, and angsting and they make these... these plans. I overheard how they had made plans to change Granger and the Weasley girl. I even saw them there, giving reports on their progress. They acted like changing every day was a routine thing. They didn't talk like Granger or Weasley; they talked like... like those girls. I don't know how to put it." She paused, collecting her thoughts. "They talked as if they were things that have possessed Granger and Weasley. You should've heard it." She shook her head ruefully.

***

"But I worry. Perhaps needlessly. Perhaps these silly children are just lucky. It would not surprise me." Polaris smiled benevolently. "But even so, I will always worry. They may start small, but who knows what they could grow into. Who knows how organized they could become."

"Who cares!?" a brave voice spoke up in the silence. The crowd parted to reveal Virginia "Ginny" Weasley. Her hair was a mass of blood red curls and her eyes a brilliant green. "We're better than they are! They could never become a threat to us!"

Polaris watched her with a slight smile. "Ah, Virginia. Your confidence, although admirable, is tragic. We once believed ourselves to be unstoppable, unbeatable, but things have changed," Polaris eyes flashed darkly. "Haven't they?"

***

"They want to move in; they want to take Hogwarts from us and they don't want to share." Edwina finished grimly and stared out at the silent crowd. She glanced over and saw the Smith boy nod. She stepped down from the podium and stood beside Pansy, who gave her an encouraging smile.

Zacharias stepped up to the podium.

"So there's that." he said. "These girls want Hogwarts and they don't want any trouble from us, but they're going to be surprised, aren't they?"

***

"This place is our home now," Polaris called out to the crowd, who murmured and began clapping in agreement. Megan watched impassively but her amber eyes blazed in the shadows. "And we must fight for our home. We must stomp out these rough spots. We must take command! This is our home now! We aren't going to wander anymore! We've come, we've seen, and we will conquer!"

The crowd erupted into cheers and vigorous applause. Many were talking animatedly to their neighbors. All had a look of determination in their rainbow eyes.

Megan too, but for different reasons.

***

"But, as Edwina said, they are organized and they outnumber us greatly. Anyone with eyes can see that clearly. In turn, we will have to become more organized and we must stick together. In these times of trial, the most important thing is loyalty! Not just to each other, but to our fallen comrades, to the people we once knew, and to Hogwarts! Hogwarts is our home and no one, not these girls and not even He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named can take that away from us! We will fight them!"

The crowd erupted into applause, but Elizabeth held back.

"Fallen comrades," she said sadly under her breath. Alex glanced questioningly at her.

"How?" Asked one of the Ravenclaw girls after the applause died down. Zacharias hesitated.

"The purifying spell has worked well for us in the past," he began warily.

"Yeah, but you've only used it twice," the inquisitive Ravenclaw interrupted. "How do we know it'll work in every situation? How do we know that wasn't a fluke?"

"We don't," Hannah spoke up from behind Zacharias. "But it's all we've got right now."

"But we'll get more, which is what I was trying to get to." Zacharias glared at the offending girl for a moment before continuing. "We need to find out their weaknesses and how to get rid of them, and for that I plan to establish a group of researchers. They will study the transfer students, observe their behaviors, and research possible spells to destroy them." A few members of the crowd started murmuring with excitement. "If you would like to apply for a position in this group, please see Daniel Conti, the Ravenclaw who's standing over there, waving.

There will be another group designated for the purpose of the actual destroying of the transfer students."

Alex perked up at this. So did many others, as another, louder murmur ran through the crowd.

"I assume there will be a great deal more applications for a position in this group and that's fine." he said, silencing the talk immediately. "We'll need many volunteers, but please keep in mind when you apply that you will be facing very dangerous individuals and they will be..." he hesitated. "Well, people. You must ask yourself if you have the constitution to face someone who you plan to... get rid of. You must also ask yourself if you think you are quick enough and are talented enough with the wand to win duels. And not just regular duels between two wizards, but strange duels were fire shoots from fingertips and an animal familiar or a boyfriend always lurks nearby, ready to tear your face off. I would suggest some form of training, but I doubt we have that kind of time."

By now the entire room was filled with excited whispers. Yes, it would look like there would be no shortage of people willing to destroy the transfer students.

Alex shooed some third years from the couch and flopped down, Elizabeth following suit after her.

"It sounds exciting, doesn't it?" Elizabeth asked.

"It does, but I wonder how many people actually listened to Zach's speech? I mean, I don't think it'll be easy to.. well... take care of someone." Alex said, resting her head on the arm of the couch and curling up.

"You did it." Elizabeth pointed out, missing Alex's wince. "And then you ate her."

Alex didn't respond.

"Hey guys," Sara greeted, emerging from the throng of people. "Wasn't that a great meeting? I'm going to be apart of the researchers. Zacharias has already confirmed it." she said proudly. "I assume you're going to join the attack squad, Alex?"

Alex sighed. "Yeah, probably."

Sara frowned. "I would have thought you would be more enthusiastic than that."

"Alex is being moody and tortured," Elizabeth said wisely.

"I am not being moody and tortured." she said irritably. "I'm just... having an attack of conscience." she said vaguely. "It'll pass."

"I hope so," Elizabeth said sympathetically. "Because you'd make a great killer."

"Thanks," she said flatly.

"Being a part of the attack squad would be interesting," Sara said thoughtfully.

"It would be kind of cool. It'd be like being an assassin." Alex said, grinning slightly.

"Plus, all the taffy you could eat!" Elizabeth said. She started giggling until Alex threw a pillow at her.

***

In the darkness of the Ravenclaw common room, a teen with golden tresses, sat poised at the edge of a couch, outlined by the soft, flickering light of the fireplace. Her head was buried in her hands, and a soft muttering escaped from her perfect, pink lips.

The tapestry was flung aside then, and a gaggle of girls entered, all chatting excitedly. One of them saw the tormented figure and detached from the group, flouncing over to the deep blue couch.

"Hello Luna dear," she trilled. "You should have come to tonight's meeting, you know." she leaned down to try and see Luna's face. "Oh my," she whispered. "Are we having another bad turn? You poor thing. There, there." She rested one finely manicured hand on Luna's shoulder. The teen instantly relaxed under her touch. "It's because of dad, isn't it? He was always so cruel to us... wasn't he?" Her nails dug into the white fabric of Luna's uniform.

Luna shrugged off the hand and sat back against the couch, her eyes looking opalescent in the firelight. "Yes," she whispered. "That's what's wrong with me."

The girl gave her a sympathetic smile and threw her arms around Luna's form. "Don't worry, my dear Luna. You'll always have me, your dear twin, Solaria."



Editor's Note: Happy Halloween! Staffie costume pictures next month. Stay tuned...

THE GAIAN PRESS - Issue 10.0 - November '05


IN THIS ISSUE:
1. The Neighborhood Watch - Gaian news for our attention deficit generation.
2. Honorable Mentions - Writing submitted and scouted by the best.
3. Point! What's Your Point? - Anti-social, anti-state, anti-you.
4. La Revue - Ninja is all-knowing review mastah. Obey, now!
5. Writer's Aide - Brought to you by Gypsy Hart!
6. The Afterthought - Preview for the next issue and then some.



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PART I. Poetry and Prose
Listed in alphabetical order by author.

Plaster Girl, by Laverne Terres
A Three Part Tribute, by alicemae
(Untitled), by Aphrodite



Plaster Girl
By Laverne Terres

Whose hands were folded tight, whose face refused
the wine the daughters should suggest to drink.
The pancake face she brought along enthused
whose hands were folded tight, whose face refused.
The man who peels trapdoors and sees will think:
whose hands were folded tight, whose face refused
the wine the daughters should suggest to drink?

A Three Part Tribute
By alicemae

I. Love Song

The radio's on.
Your pillow's empty.
I wake up humming a song --
WTF?
lady lover gone.
Oh.
(time to shower)
Damn. I thought I had it all
but you knew the yesterdays would remember
what I forgot about today
And so
tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow
My heart will go on?
(because it wouldn't otherwise?)
oh, wait, I apologize:
Because I died in your arms last night.
At least, that's what the ******** sing
sing sing sing
like a dead dove sings.
I just want to close my eyes.
release a sigh.
You know, you're right,
love songs aren't for lovers anymore.
(What do you want this time?)
I'll pick you up at seven --
Happy birthday, alright?

II. Thank You, Mr. President

"Fireworks!" You cry.
"Tra-lalala," says I,
or SOMETHING along those lines.
still it can't be helped, I guess;
what's lost is lost
The Black Milk Is Spilt
(and-the-leftovers-won't-rot)
so no need to hold your nose, silly!
Even if you wanna lap-it-up
DON'T LIE TO YOURSELF
because you know better
even if we can't SEE
Those bodies so torn and decomposed
all around, all around:
I can hear it.
Freedom is such a beautiful sound.

III. In the End

Life Is Just A Memory
that we purchased alongtheway
so why should it matter
when we're six feet under?
Jesus and His fans beg differ
(thanks but no thanks)
i'd rather listen to
some five-star Rolling Stone's band
because this stuff is more of Who I Am:
A teenage rocker chick
(with blue steaks in her hair)
An aging middle-class drone
(driving with the windows rolled)
A little old granny popping her meds
(to fight the sadness and other ills)
i see and i don't see
The Meaning Of Everything!
then again, then again --
Everyone dies in the end.
Amen?

(Untitled)
Aphrodite

Sitting in math class
Bored, yawning, and falling-
(seventeen squared something)
Asleep...

I see blue eyes
So beautiful, my chest aches.
The bells- how they sound in the crisp air!
So clear, like the laughter of Angels.
My feet are hitting the sand
The breeze sweeps my hair and plays with my clothes.
My heart is racing,
Speeding away with you...

It's almost pitch out here, out side.
But for the moon, in it's cresent
Smiling upon the lovers of the world
And cherishing their secrets.
It reflects upon your eyes- pools of cool water
So filled with life and hope,
Nothing can dim the spirit with those wonderful eyes,
And that smiling moon grows jealous...

Now we are riding in the early light,
At breakneck spead, life is a gamble
But isn't fun and games the only thing worth dying for?
Spinning furiously, we have no control
Delusional about our leadership
Who are we to think we are so wise?
We who create to destroy!
Reasure me that there will be life in the end...

Your eyes are fading away-
Why is this ending so soon?
Something in my arm is aching,
There is a distant voice in the wind
My fragile heart is slowly breaking
I cannot find an escape
The voice draws nearer still-
Is it possible that this is a dream?

Since when did I speak like that?
You have never looked at me that way...
Since when have I been a philosopher?
The moon does not smile.

Sitting in detention
Bored, yawning, and falling-
(Pay attention!)
Asleep
Again...



PART II. Fiction
Listed in alphbetical order by author.

The Badger Brigade, by Hemp Fandango
Breath of the Dragon, radioactive alchemist
Mindgames, by Randomperson



The Badger Brigade
By Hemp Fandango

Chapter Eight: The Chosen
Now with 90% more backstory!

"Come along, Luna," Solaria said briskly as she strode along the hallowed halls of Hogwarts. Her sable hair flowed behind her, like a river of darkness, moving in a breeze no one else could feel. Her golden eyes glittered with excitement. Her face wore a satisfied smile.

Luna trailed behind her obediently. She too was smiling, but in a faintly worrying way. It was a little, fixed, misty smile - if smiles could be misty. Her eyes were no longer wide and bulging, but half-lidded. Luna looked at the world through silver-blue orbs.

Aside from the click of Solaria's heels, the only sound filling the hall was the soft murmur of students and teachers from the classrooms. Luna cocked her head to the side to listen, faintly remembering a time when she would attend classes. She didn't attend classes that sounded like these ones did. Voices raised in song wafted into the hall, joined with screams and sobs and other sounds of drama.

"We're here," Solaria said quietly to Luna. "Don't embarrass me."

Ahead of them was a small group of young women. Calling them mere "women" seemed like a putrid insult that would cause shame and self-loathing. They were more than women. They were goddesses. Each one of them was beautiful, exotic and delicate, like precious stones or rare and exquisite flowers. They sparkled.

For the first time in possibly her entire life, Solaria hesitated.

One of the girls - who had two black fox-like ears with silver tips poking out of her head and had three thick black silver tipped tail poking out of her stylish pants - turned to look at Solaria's approching form. Her emerald eyes (that had a ring of gold around the iris) slid to the smiling figure beside Solaria and narrowed. She nudged her companion and whispered something.

"Ah, Solaria!" a voice of friendly greeting called out from the group. "How nice of you to join us." The girls parted to reveal Polaris, stunning as ever, sitting on the sill of a large window, looking out over the grounds. She turned and smiled widely. Her sparkling gaze landed on Luna and her smile widened slightly, revealing two scythe-like fangs.

"I see you've brought a friend," she noted.

Solaria took a deep breath before answering. "Yes. I had to, unfortunately. Luna is... still vulnerable. I would rather keep an eye on her."

"I see," Polaris said. "Is Luna still causing problems?"

Solaria sighed and ran her thin fingers through her onyx hair. "Well, not exactly problems-"

"You can't control her? You need assistance?"

Solaria's golden eyes flashed. "Of course not," she said vehemently. "I can handle some silly girl, but-"

"But you can't handle leaving her alone? Is that what I'm hearing?" Polaris asked, giving Solaria a genuine look of confusion.

Solaria paused. "I can handle her, Polaris."

"I very much hope so," Polaris said, not taking her eyes off of Solaria. "After all, you're so very close to joining us," she said, waving one lily-white hand at the assembled group.

Solaria's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked breathlessly.

"Of course," Polaris said smoothly. "You've done excellent work in the past, and tackling such a hard case as our Miss Lovegood here, certainly entitles you to a reward." she paused. "Then again, if you aren't even that sure of your own abilities that you can't let Luna alone-"

"I am certain of my abilities," Solaria said hurriedly. "I was just being overly cautious. Luna is ours completely, I assure you."

Polaris' icy gaze flickered momentarily to Luna. "Good," she said.

Solaria let out a breath she wasn't aware she had been holding. She turned to Luna, who had been staring peacefully at nothing throughout the exchange. "Okay, Luna," she said brightly. "I would like to speak to my friends now, so if you could just find something else to do, that would be lovely." She spoke each word carefully, as if speaking to a small child.

Luna shrugged and wandered away.

"Wonderful," Polaris said after Luna had wafted away. "Now then, we shall officially swear you in as one of The Chosen."

A susurration started between the girls. Solaria drew herself up proudly and thrust out her chest with pride.

Polaris unfolded her long, shapely legs and stood up. "Sister Solaria Lovegood; aka Princess Solaria of the Sun Kingdom; aka Hoshino, Tenshi; aka Angelic Sailor Sun; bearer of the Kinzuinshou, The Solar Staff, and the Golden Wing Sword. I, Polaris, hereby accept you into our very select and special group of individuals. Welcome to The Chosen!"

The girls around her broke into applause as Solaria beamed.

The Chosen. Not many of the others knew about them. They were secret, they were select, and they were very, very, very special. You only knew about them if they wanted you to know. They were the oldest, the most powerful, the wisest, and bore the longest names. They had seen many worlds and done many people. They were the decision makers. They were the defenders. They were the elite.

Solaria felt like crying. After all her hard work, after all her angsting, after all her singing, after displaying so much grace and poise, after seducing Kunzite from his former boyfriend (they were only going out because he was brainwashed and evil, okay???) finally, finally she made it. She was in. She was the elite.

"And now, for some introductions," Polaris said, sitting gracefully down on the sill once more. "Sakura, would you care to start us off?"

The fox-girl nodded and smiled. She had sleek violet hair that was tied back into a high ponytail with her long bangs framing her heart-shaped face. "Konnichiwa," she greeted. "Watashi wa Himeno Sakura, but my star-angel name is Selenity Blackfyre. I am half kitsune and half-star angel," she twisted around, revealing two small, feathery wings poking out of her back. "As you can see," she said turning to face them again, "it's had a strange effect on my fur colouring. I'm also the most well-known idol singer, I've starred in six blockbusters, and I like to design and sew my own clothes and I may just start my own line of fashion soon." She gestured to her extravagent pink outfit clothes.

"Did I mention that I'm well over 200 years old? I've been called here to help out with the Order and I'm going to play yenta to Harry and Draco up in my spare time. And Snape will love me. Before this I was a wanted criminal for 600 billion double dollars on the planet Gunsmoke, and I spent my time chasing after Vash the Stampede. Legato tried to recruit me once but I refused."

"Very good, Sakura. Very... descriptive. Next?" Polaris asked.

The girl with the long rose hair stepped forward. She wore a victorian-style ebony dress with red crushed velvet hugging her mighty breasts[1] and hugged her curvy form. A thin strap of leather was wrapped around her slender neck and a curious Celtic-style cross hung from it.

"I am Coral Mist Rayne," she said in lilting tones. "I am a mermaid, but I have the ability to walk on land with the rest of you earth-dwellers. I was the princess of my people, and as a result I was very powerful. I learned mastery over healing and water magicks when I was but a child. I was beloved of my people... but one day everything changed." Her sapphire eyes hardened.

"I wanted to see the land and its people, so I cooked up a quick spell and turned myself into a human. I was so happy, discovering what the world was like above the water... such sights I had never seen. And then I saw a vampire. And he- he-" she broke down in sobs, unable to continue.

One of the girls sighed and rolled her eyes. She wrapped one comforting arm around Coral's trembling form. "There, there," she intoned. "She was given the Dark Gift and lived the rest of her days wandering around and crying, because mermaids hate vampires," she informed Solaria. "She was accepted into Hogwarts but she's forced to keep her true identity secret. Before she was here, she was captured by a group of people called Shrina or something and she was infused with some Mako and then fell in love with some bloke named Sephiroth but he died somehow."

"Don't forget that I can also do wandless magic and turn into any sea creature," Coral said from the depths of her sorrow.

"Yes, yes-"

"And I have a pet kelpie."

"Yes, he's lovely," the girl rolled her eyes again. "So that's her story. Now it's time for mine. But first, a description."

The girl had chocolate brown hair with violet tips that flowed down just past her shoulders. Her eyes were golden-amber coloured and reminded Solaria strongly of a wolf's eyes. She wore a black t-shirt with the words "Ice Princess" in sparkly blue text splashed across her chest and a beaten up leather jacket over it. A short denim skirt hugged her hips and a black leather, spiked belt held it in place. She had a long, thin scar on her face going from her left eye to her chin. She smiled.

"Done? Okay, firstly: my name is Piper Trillium Phoenix Lupin-Black. I am a golden werewolf, which is like a regular werewolf but better. I can change at will and keep my head while I'm in my werewolf form. My werewolf form, by the way, is larger than the average werewolf and distinguishable because of the patch of fur on my forehead that looks like a star. I have super strength, enhanced senses, super speed and I don't need a wand, obviously. I tame dragons in my spare time and I've become renown throughout the entire wizarding world because of it. I've also started a band that's hugely popular in the wizarding world. We're called "House and the Sheds".

"My parents are Sirius Black and Remus Lupin and I was their miracle. The truth is, I'm really a gift from the goddess of the moon because Daddy-Remus is such a good guy. He deserved to have me. I've inherited my fathers' pranking talents and love of mischief and I've also inherited some gifts from the moon goddess, including her divine protection and the ability to control the elements. I've made friends with Harry, Ron and Hermione and together we've made a new Marauder group. My nickname is "Golden Mane" because of the mane I sport while in my wolf form. I've also discovered that I'm related to Godric Gryffindor somehow. Before this I was a Teen Titan and Beast Boy loved me. P.S. Terra is a whoreface." she finished, beaming proudly at Solaria.

Before Polaris even spoke, a petite girl with short black hair bounced forward.

"Konnichiwaaa!! Ha ha, I'm just kidding. I'm not actually Japanese, I just spent a lot of time there for my transfer year." She stuck her hand out for Solaria to shake.

"My name is Starr Danger Merrymoon. Believe it or not, but my middle name really is danger!! Lol!! I come from one of the most powerful wizarding families ever! I am the heir of Ravenclaw, as well as the heir of the Sakura cards. When I was younger I captured all of the Sakura cards and turned them, and now they're the Danger Cards because I like my middle name better than my first but you can still call me Starr, okay??????? I also have my own special guardians, because Kero and Yue wanted to stay with Sakura which I'm so cool with, oh not that Sakura," she gestured to the cat-girl, "but another Sakura with brown hair and I think she's at this school now with her friends and she's a sorceress and so am I did I mention? I'm also part faery which is really really really rare I don't know how my dad managed to snag my mom, she's the faery you see, but he did and now I'm here and I'm also a princess of the faeries isn't that amazing??!??? I totally didn't see it coming when I first heard but I was happy because I could wear awesome dresses, and my guardian Diana loves to make me dresses. She's here too but she's calling herself Amethyst because her hair is purple I guess lol.

"Anyway, where was I? Oh yes! I captured all the cards and even made my own new card, which is the most powerful card in the deck, it's the Courage card and it has a picture of a lion with faery wings. But now I'm here in Hogwarts and I don't even need a wand, I'm a sorceress so I just use my words!!! And my cards of course, lol!!" Starr bounced on the balls of her feet. Her wide eyes were like precious sapphires, flecked with silver. She wore a babydoll blue t-shirt with the word "Angel" written in sparkly text across the front and black denim capris with a sparkling blue Chinese dragon painted up the side. Around her neck was a blue and silver key pendent. "I'm here at Hogwarts to protect the cards from evil Voldypants and while I'm here I've fallen in love with Harry and I just know we're going to have babies one day, probably twins! I have a pet pheonix!!!! Her name is Sunbreeze!!!"

"Thank you, Star," Polaris said firmly. "That was very... long. Excellent. I believe you already know Serenity?" she said, pointing to a slender, willowy blonde maiden with fathomless lilac eyes that held untold knowledge. She inclined her magnificent head slightly in greeting. "Legolas' wife? The last true bearer of Elven magic and one of the Rings of Power? Okay, good-"

"I do hate to interrupt you, Polaris, but I must interject," Serenity said, with a voice as soft as the sigh of angels. "I cannot help but feel that you are over simplifying my deep and complex past. For I am not only related to the Istari, but also to the Valar themselves and to a forgotten race known only The Dark Elves. We were a persecuted and secretive people, but it has only been of late that I was forced to reveal myself to the rest of Arda as my father, the king, arranged my marriage to the prince of Mirkwood in order to obtain peace between our two warring nations.

"We had a rough start at first, but after a while we warmed up to each other and fell in love. Sadly, a war came between us and he was forced to go on a quest to return the Ring of Power to Mt. Doom. I have come to Hogwarts to join the noble fight against Voldemort and I one day hope to be reunited with my prince." She sighed happily.

"During my stay I have discovered blood ties to Dumbledore and that I am the last of the unisi, a species of winged unicorns that have sadly died out due to humanities stupidity and greed," her voice became hard and her eyes became like cold chips of amethyst.

Solaria nodded, and suppressed the urge to break into applause. It was really quite a performance. And she was left in awe of her companions. She couldn't help it. They had all done so much.

But then again, it's worth noting that Solaria is easily impressed.

"What about you, Polaris?" Solaria asked, sidling towards her. "What's your story?"

The Chosen seemed to still at those words. They watched Polaris silently as she sat staring out onto the sun-dappled grounds thoughtfully. Polaris, as far as Solaria knew, had never really said much about her past. Unusual behaviour for one of their kind. Especially for someone like Polaris. She seemed to know a great deal about almost everything and it had to be said - although grudgingly - she was the most powerful and wisest of them all. There was little question that she had done a great deal, but what she'd done... no one really knew. All wondered but none knew. Polaris wove an aura of mystery around herself like no one else could ever manage. She turned her head slowly and gazed directly into Solaria's golden eyes.

"My past is..." she murmured as the assembled girls held their collective breath, "private." The girls sighed and looked disappointed. The spell was broken. Polaris smiled secretively and turned to look out at the grounds once more.

"This is such a lovely place, isn't it?" she said.

"It's freezing," Piper grumbled in her mini-skirt. "Freaking England. They need proper weather down here. None of this cold crap."

Solaria rolled her eyes. "I thought you were born here?"

"Only for this world. Where I originally came from it was very warm. Duh," she said, rolling her eyes.

Polaris sighed happily as the girls went on with chattering. Drumming her fingers on her lap, she sung quietly under her breath.

"They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within.
I'm comming now
I'm comming to reward them.

First we take Manhattan
Than we take Berlin..."

***

Not far from the gathering of The Chosen, Luna dreamily ambled down the deserted corridors of Hogwarts. She had no preset idea of what she was doing or where she was going. The only thing she knew at the moment was a) it was a very nice day out, if chilly and b) she looked drop dead gorgeous.

There was no denying it. She was pretty. Really pretty. She hadn't been before but now she was and that was fine. Silvery blue eyes, platinum blond hair, a figure that could inspire poetry, and a possible royal heritage? Yes, she could get used to this. Life was sweet.

There was only one small problem. She had a strange? thing in her head. It was difficult to describe, but it was vaguely annoying. Easy enough to ignore when she was thinking about important things like her past life, her father's horrible abuse, her dead mother, or hair, but at times when her mind was at rest the feeling nagged at her. It was like an itch she couldn't scratch. It made her twitchy.

She paused. The silence she had grown used to was now being disturbed by the murmur of voices. She concentrated on the sound and discovered it was coming from one of the abandoned classrooms to her right. She sidled closer and pressed her shell-like ear to the thick oak of the door. She could hear the voices clearer now. They were female.

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

A sigh. "Nothing, I guess. Never mind."

"Okay, Liz. You wanted to talk so let's talk."

"Er. What would you say if I told you I was worried about?" Liz lowered her voice. "Luna Lovegood?"


There was a pause.

"I would say I don't see the reason we had to go to some dusty classroom for a conversation like this."

"It's just that," Luna could hear the sound of crackling paper. "I got this note?"

There was another, longer pause.

"Weird," the unidentified speaker said finally. "Who sent it?

"That's just the thing, I don't know."

Another thoughtful pause.

"What's Sailor Moon?"

"Er. Well, it's this show from, you know, Japan and it's about, um, girls saving the world. And stuff."

"What a minute. Is this that stupid show with the blond twit saving the world in mini skirts and stiletto heels?"

"There's more to it than that," Liz said hotly. The second speaker began to laugh.

"Lordy, Liz don't tell me you like that crap?"
"It's not crap. It's entertaining. Anyway, that's not important right now. If what this letter said is true, then Luna has become a Sailor Sco- oh honestly, Alex!" she snapped. "Stop laughing!"

"I will when it stops being funny."

Luna pulled away thoughtfully.

Liz, Liz? a memory stirred of a petite girl with curly hair and a shy smile. The itch in her mind grew more insistent.

Feeling uneasy, she put her ear back to the door.

"...which means her "twin" is probably one too. The letter said we could save Luna, but we'd have to remind her of her real past."

"I got you. The only problem I see is that, uh, we don't know her past."

Another sigh. "I know. I really don't know what to do."

"Maybe Longbottom knows something. "

"I already sort of asked him. All he told me was that she lives with her father who is the editor of the Quibbler..."

Luna jerked away and stumbled back. The itch had turned into a dull throb. She clutched her head and groaned. More memories stirred in her mind, memories that contradicted the ones she had come to known were true. She reeled back into the wall.

A part of her really wished Solaria was there. She would know what to do. Everything was just better with Solaria was around.

Another part? wondered what happened to her chili pepper earrings.

The door opened then and a curly haired head peeked out.

"Luna?" she said, startled.

Luna looked up into a round, friendly, familiar face. "Elizabeth?" Luna said, her voice sounding distant and strange. Her father... she remembered. They had gone to Sweden to look for the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. They had sat outside all day until the sun went down against the mountains... it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

No, she thought to herself. That's silly. There's no such thing. Dad hates us. He hates you most of all. You remind him too much of mum...

He abuses you. Don't forget that.

The red light of the sunset makes his face look strange. He smiles. "You look like her, you know. But... I think, you're more like me." Laughter. "How unfortunate for you. Oh! I think I just saw one! Get your camera, quick!"

Luna slid down the wall, staring peacefully at nothing. Elizabeth crept slowly towards her, Alex looming closely behind her.

"Luna...?" She reached out cautiously. The limp figure made no move to stop her, or even noticed she was there. Elizabeth hesitated, unsure of what to do next. She gave Alex an anxious look.
'What now?' she mouthed.

Alex just shrugged.

Elizabeth steeled herself and bravely... put her hand on Luna's shoulder.

Luna twitched slightly. Methodically, as if in a dream, she reached into her robe pocket and pulled out a pair of small snow globes. Each was rather gaudy, with a small model of a warm-water mermaid[2] sitting on a large seashell. She gave them a small shake, causing sparkles to tumble around the vacantly smiling mermaid.

She blinked her bulbous blue eyes.

"Hello," she said dreamily. She held up her hand for Elizabeth to inspect. "They're lovely, aren't they?"

Alex leaned over Elizabeth's shoulder to get a better look. Both girls were silent for a while.

"Um. Yes?" Elizabeth said.

"I got them in Sweden," Luna informed them.

"Because... that makes sense." Alex said.

Luna smiled her faintly worrying smile at them and stood up. Elizabeth pulled back cautiously. Luna turned to stare out the window, while fastening the two globes to her ears. She gave one of them an experimental flick and admired her reflection.

"I'd like to go to your common room," she said after a while.

"Uh-" Alex began.

"Of course!" said Elizabeth.

A little further down the hall, the floor gleamed.

Megan watched the fifth years leave thoughtfully.

"I thought it would take more than that," she said quietly.

'Did you see the earrings? Now, why would she just happen to have those on her unless she was trying to fight it somehow? I think that one was just stronger than the Essence.' Mr Muffins said, flicking his tail from side to side.

Megan pulled out a small silver lighter and dislodged the cigarette she kept behind her ear. "Yeah," she said, as she lit her cigarette. "But I didn't see any fireworks. That means the parasite is still in her. That's not good."

Mr Muffins gave a feline shrug. 'Yes, but it's not our problem. We've done our bit.'

Megan remained silent.

'We have, haven't we? That's all we're doing, right? Because any more meddling could attract Polaris' attention, right? That would be suicide, right?'

Megan continued to be silent.
Mr Muffins flattened his ears against his skull and narrowed his eyes. 'You... you aren't seriously considering-'

"I have to do something, okay?" she snapped.

'No! You don't! That's the beauty of it!'

Megan sighed. "I have to," she said quietly. "Polaris wants to rule Hogwarts like a kingdom and that... that..." she stuttered, unable to finish. Muffins continued to glare and she realised it was pointless to appeal to his sense of decency, as he had none.

But Megan knew what she had to do. Though she never said so, Megan knew Polaris intended to rule as a queen and that... that just didn't sit well with Megan. The idea of someone on a throne made Megan's teeth stand on edge. Something in her very bones rebelled at the idea.

She quietly stubbed out her cigarette and resumed mopping.

Breath of the Dragon
By radioactive alchemist

"...and my breath shall be your wind, and
my eye, your guidance through the night.
My scales shall shine in the darkness of
the heavens, and my tears shall sustain
your crops. For I am the Great Dragon
of the Sky, and I shall not neglect you, my
people. If ever you would come to me, let
your route be through the sea, where my
likeness is reflected in the icy blue depths."
-The Great Dragon's Promise

The wind whispered through the trees, creating hollow voices that spoke of ancient eras long since past, guiding me, forcing upon me my route that lead unerringly to the cliffs at the edge of the sea. Wave upon foam-capped wave crashed into the base of those stark, lonely cliffs, wearing them slowly away to join again as sand at the bottom of those icy blue depths. The sun had long since set, and the moon had begun her lonely trek across the star-speckled night sky to shed her thin, weary light on a perfect night. The bright North Star was clearly visible to my eye, and lower, hanging on to the edge of the far horizon, the small reddish dot that was Mars. Across the sea, a lonely beacon flashed on and off, warning ships of the treacherous reefs and haughty cliffs that rose nearly vertical from seemingly out of nowhere. Off to my right, silhouetted against the climbing disc, a pure white timber wolf raised its head to howl its defiance at a moon who dared show her face in his domain.

I smiled, thinking that I was the wolf, leader of the pack. To race unhindered through the forests, to lap water from clear springs, to dig my muzzle into a fresh kill and feast on its meat! To howl at the full moon, to know that whatever I looked upon, I owned! But alas, I was not the wolf. A shadow rose up in my heart, a fear that made me shiver, although the night was still warm. If only...

I watched the wolf trot down from his rocky throne to join with his pack once again, ready to throw his own life into the face of danger and to lead and defend. Oh, that I had the courage, the bravery, with no thought of myself, only my wolf-friends. But... I had no friends, wolf or otherwise. I climbed up to where the wolf had been, a high, jutting point of rock stretching precariously over the waters. The eye of the dragon, the cold and lonely moon, looked down to judge my worth. The black night sky, dotted with the scales of the dragon, stretched endlessly above me. I stood at the edge of the rock, arms outstretched, facing the sea, head thrown back. "Great Dragon, have you made my life for nothing? I have no one, no one but you! Take me back, if you would!" My challenge hung in the silence of the night, expecting. With decisive hurricane force, the breath of the dragon pushed me over the cliff and down--down to the icy blue depths where my soul shall rest with the Great Dragon of the Skies forevermore.

Mindgames
By Randomperson

Calhoun awoke in the middle of the night. He had been restless for the past few nights; perhaps it was the heat. He sat up in bed and clicked on the television and switched to the news.

Emergency broadcast flashed across the top of the screen as the reporter began,
"2 hours ago, Russia announced its alignment with Iraq. Some fear this may be the beginning of a third world war, but under the circumstances it may be more like a second cold war. Although we have no confirmation, biological weapons may play a larger role than ever before."

Although Calhoun had set his telephone to low ring, the harsh sound interrupted the news. He turned and checked the alarm next to him. 3:51 AM flashed the bright green digits. He groaned before picking up the phone. "Do you know what time it is?" He asked into the receiver.

"Yes, but this is urgent," replied the man on the other line, whom he recognized as George Gordon, his current understudy. "Another body has been discovered," he said, his voice growing grim. "Get down to 26 Cardinal Drive, but prepare yourself, it's brutal."

"Christ, that bad?" Calhoun asked sitting up in bed. He hadn't received any warning with any of the other bodies he had surveyed in his line of work and some of those were enough to turn his stomach inside out. Perhaps it was just George's nervousness. Yeah, he thought, that was probably it.

"More than you know," George responded in a shaky voice, apparently Calhoun had hit a weak nerve. "Just get down here as fast as you can. Remember the address?"

"Yeah, I got it," Calhoun responded, almost feeling his intelligence underestimated by the question. After hanging up the phone, he quickly threw on a pair of blue jeans and a black T-shirt. It felt warm enough tonight or this morning to not need a jacket. He walked up to his Civic and twisted his key. A cool rush of air came from the vents as he pulled out of his driveway.

Calhoun recognized the address; it was somewhere in a small neighborhood. At least that gives a better chance for witnesses than some of the more rural murders he had encountered. His headlights seemed to dance across the homes as he turned into the district, eventually coming to 26 Cardinal Drive. He parallel parked just outside the driveway; he was surprised to see only 2 marked cars on the scene, along with 1 unmarked, which he presumed belonged to the victim.

Calhoun exited his vehicle and twisted the front doorknob. Finding it open, he walked in. George was right by the door, waiting to brief him. "The body s in the next room over," he said, pointing to the right.

"As it was found?" Calhoun asked. It was the standard procedure for such things to leave the body, but sometimes the citizens who discovered it were not familiar with this and would move the corpse. Seeing George nod his head, he asked his next question, "got a time of death estimate?"

Again, George nodded. "Doc says 7 hours ago." Calhoun tilted his head in acknowledgement before heading into the scene. Good, he thought, recent death. That would mean less rotting and they could almost certainly identify the body.

Calhoun left for the next room, but George stayed behind, claiming he needed fresh air. It appeared to be some sort of living room. Basic furniture and television, not over priced, but not too cheap. The newly made focal point of the room, however, made it difficult to analyze the rest of the situation. On the wall opposite to them was the victim.

Her arms were outstretched and nailed through the hands, pinning her to the wall. Her feet dangled slightly, never resting. His thoughts about easy identification from the corpse were horribly wrong. Her face was practically sliced off, showing the blood drenched bone of her skull. Her eyes were barely inside the sockets. Despite all this, her midsection was cleared of blood to make the killer's message visible. Carved into her stomach were the words "judgement day is upon us."

Not another one. There had been 10 others similar to this one. The first corpse had read 10 days. The second had read 9 and so on counting down to this. Calhoun took another glance at the body. A spider scurried across the "face" of the victim and entered the eye socket. For a second, he thought the body twitched. Can't let the killer get to me, damn the mindgames. Maybe I'm just tired. His thought was interrupted by a low moan emanating from the body. Its right arm jerked forward, sliding off the nail quickly. Its feet touched the floor with its right arm free, allowing it to thrust forward with its whole body, freeing its left arm. Calhoun stumbled backwards, bumping into a wall. He yanked the 9mm out of his holster and pushed against the wall for stability. He unloaded three rounds into the chest of the corpse causing it to jerk backwards. The body continued forwards after standing still for a moment. Calhoun aimed higher, placing a bullet dead center of the forehead. The body fell back and lay still on the ground.

Calhoun collapsed against the wall from shock. He sat there for several minutes before hearing the footsteps of the other officer's approach. He looked up to stretch his neck, but saw something drop from the ceiling. Before he knew what was happening it was on his face, crawling around. He screamed and tried to jerk it off to no avail. The insect sunk its fangs into his flesh, just below his eye. Nothing followed but black.