It was a fairly typical Friday in spring on campus. Alex West was relaxing outside in the sun, reading a good book as other people played Frisbee or volley ball or played catch. On this particular day Alex’s friend Donat, a.k.a. Delwynndwn Siele, was coming to visit for the weekend, and those visits usually meant adventure of some sort.
     ‘I’m bored,’ Alex thought as he looked up from his book. He face faulted the moment he spied the Frisbee sailing at his head. There was a breeze as a half naked and well toned body dove past him, catching the Frisbee in mid flight.
     “You gonna be O.K.?” the person asked, tapping Alex on the reflexively thrown up forearm. Alex unblocked his face to look at a handsome face with a goatee, a shock of bleached blond hair, and hazel green eyes hidden behind Oakly brand sunglasses.
     “Um... yeah,” Alex said, blushing a bit and feeling stupid for how he reacted to an incoming object, “thanks for asking.”
     “No problem. Sorry that it nearly clipped you in the face,” the person said, smiling. Alex felt himself melting into a puddle of bish crazy goo. Someone shouted and he shouted back, “In a moment,” before adding to Alex, “I’ll see you around.”
     “Sure thing Pat. I’ll catch you later.”
     As Alex was about to resume reading his book he found himself getting tackled from behind before having his ear nearly blown out with a loud, “MEOW!” He immediately became airborne, scrambling up the tree, where he hid in the branches, shuddering from adrenaline overload.
     Below the tree stood a young lady with elbow length straight brown hair, pulled back in a ponytail. Standing next to her was another young lady with shoulder length blond hair pulled back behind her ears. Both were laughing quite hard from his reaction to their sudden appearance.
     “T... Tina?” Alex gasped when he saw who was below. “Erin! You guys are horrible!”
     “You’re the one who needs to switch to decaf,” the blond said, grinning up at him.
     “Yeah Alex, you really should expect the unexpected when we’re around,” the brunette added, batting her eyes at him. “Come on down sweetie.”
     Alex jumped out of the tree, landing in a crouch next to his book. He slowly rose to his feet, smiling maliciously at the two young ladies. “You know not to invoke my wrath, especially when we’re going on one of our ghost hunts.”
     “That’s not funny!” the two women bellowed in unison.
     “Well, letting the nasty ghosties have their way with you would be perfect payback for scaring the living fuck out of me.”
     “Will Donat be coming this weekend?” the blond asked, changing the subject.
     “Yeah, he’ll be here Erin,” the brunette said, “he told all of us on IM that he’d be here no matter what.”
     “I bet she has a thing for him,” Alex said, elbowing Erin in the ribs. “Isn’t that right Erin?”
     “Alex, you are so close to invoking the wrath of this elfy girl!” Erin growled before putting Alex in a headlock. “Hey Tina, want to make a wish?”
     “I’m not going to get involved this time,” Tina said before plunking down on the ground. “Besides, once Donat gets here we’re going to get food and hang out for a bit before they go off to RP and we go to the movies.”
     “Is that so?” Erin asked maliciously, increasing the pressure around Alex’s neck. “C’mon, call me queen!”
     “Princess, princess, princess, princess, princess!” Alex wailed, flailing about.
     “Don’t call me that, you knave. Call me your queen!”
     A shadow fell over them, and both looked up to see a young man with chin length blond hair standing in their sun, a heavy pack slung on his back. “I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything?” he said, arching an eyebrow at them.
     “Donat!” Tina cried, pouncing upon him and locking him in a bear hug.
     “Gaack,” Donat croaked as his ribcage was crushed, “nice to see you Tina, Alex, Erin.”
     “Tina, I think he’d like to be able to breathe,” Alex said, noting that Donat was flailing and turning blue.
     “Oh, sorry,” Tina said, releasing her captive, who took a very long and deep breath, the color returning to his face.
     Erin finally released Alex, and the four of them entered Alex’s dorm so that Donat could drop his gear off. With that accomplished the four of them headed for Philbrook Dining Hall to grab some dinner.
     While they ate their conversation turned to the plans for the night.
     “So, we’re meeting at the Student Union after gaming, right?” Donat asked before taking a bite from an egg roll.
     “I think that’s what we agreed upon,” Erin replied between sips of soda.
     “Yeah,” Alex yawned, watching the others over the top of a glass of cranberry juice. “D and RC are tagging along with us again.”
     “The more the merrier,” Tina sighed. “Please tell me you didn’t tell the idiot we were going out.”
     “After the last time he came with us I’d never invite him again,” Alex grumbled before tearing a bite from a hunk of bread.
     The last time in question involved Alex’s friend Andrew going with them while shit faced drunk and wandering off. When they finally found him he was a total basket case, and it took Alex’s pleading with the rest of the group not to leave the drunken idiot behind.
     “Full moon tonight?” Donat asked.
     “Huh?” the other three responded in unison.
     “I asked if there was a full moon tonight,” Donat said, repeating his question.
     “No idea,” Erin replied, “I sure hope not.”
     “Ditto,” Tina said, shuddering, “you know that I get restless and the spirits get ruthless on a full moon night.”
     “Do you feel restless?”
     Tina shook her head for a negative response. “The last time I was restless was two weeks ago.”
     “Which means we’re dealing with a new moon,” Alex said, “no moonlight, meaning all of us will need flashlights.”
     “So we’ll be sure to bring them,” Tina said as she rose from the table and picked up her tray. “C’mon, slow pokes. The movie starts soon, as does gaming.”
     Alex glanced at his watch and sighed. “You’re right, and tonight is Jason’s game, so we probably won’t be starting until 8ish.”
     “Fun,” Donat sighed as he joined the others, “a two hour wait until we can role play.”
     “So we’ll see you guys a little bit after midnight,” Tina said. The two males nodded. “Good. And be ready for some real fun.”
     “Bliss, joy, and rapture,” Alex sighed as they parted company. “I wonder what sort of horror we’ll face tonight.”
     “Hopefully it won’t involve revealing our true identities or our powers,” Donat sighed as he and Alex plodded towards the Student Union building.
     “Yeah, I suppose all we can do is hope for that,” Alex added as the shadows of the oncoming evening engulfed them. “All we can do is hope.”

     Midnight came all too soon to the young people at the role playing club. With the union building people kicking them out it was the perfect time for ghost chasing.
     “Is everyone here?” D Fisher asked as she paced about with nervous anticipation.
     “Calm down dude,” RC Gogan said from her seat on one of the stone benches outside of the building, “Alex is here. Donat is here...”
     “We’re here,” Erin said as she and Tina stepped out of the building. “That was a really interesting double feature.”
     “You only think it was interesting since you slept through most of it,” Tina sighed, “I swear you snore loud enough to wake the dead.”
     Erin’s eyebrow twitched. “I do not snore.”
     “Yeah you do,” Tina replied, closing her eyes and laying her head against her shoulder in her best imitation of Erin in the theater. “Szzzzzzxxx. You sound like a truck downshifting on the highway.”
     “Oh, shut up! I do not!”
     “We heard you clear to the end of the hall,” Alex said, chuckling. He found himself in a headlock a moment later, since he obviously hit a nerve. “You can let go at any moment Erin.”
     “I don’t feel like it,” Erin growled, “at least, until you apologize.”
     Alex sighed, which was rather difficult to do when Erin was cutting off his airway. “I’m sorry I said you snore like an airplane.”
     “Should I forgive him?” Erin asked in her most mischievous tone. “Or shall I make him suffer some more?”
     “Forgiveness is divine,” Donat suggested, “since it’s only human to make mistakes.”
     “Forgive... please,” Alex said as he flailed about.
     Erin released Alex from the headlock, causing him to fall flat onto his face. D and RC held up placards, one reading ‘10’, the other reading ‘4’, which was upside down.
     “We’re together, and this is all of us,” Alex said, picking himself up from the ground. “Are we ready to go in search of the paranormal?”
     “Only after we stop by our dorm,” RC said, holding up her bag, “I don’t think we want to lug our gear around all night, especially if there’s a chance of us running from some evil, horrible, nasty thing!”
     RC made her scariest face possible, which resulted in chuckles and snickers from everyone else.
 “I need to stop by Camp - Con,” Erin said, “For... supplies.”
     “Munchies,” Alex added, “Don’t forget about munchies.”
     “Fine. We’ll do that,” D sighed as she headed for some nearby stairs that would take them to a lower level of the campus. She stopped for a moment to rummage through her bag. “OK. I need to get some supplies as well.”
     “Like some gum?” RC asked, rummaging through her own bag.
     “Yeah, gum.”
     The group descended to the lower level of campus, stopping by D’s and RC’s dorm to drop off their gear. The moment they were in the door their eardrums were assaulted by really bad guitar music.
     “Isn’t it supposed to be quiet hours?” Alex asked, plugging his ears against the cacophony that filled the air.
     “Yeah, it’s quiet hours,” RC said, raising her voice to be heard over the loud cruddy music. “Damn guitar boy doesn’t know the meaning of QUIET!!”
     The last word echoed through the stairwell, since the guitarist had suddenly decided to stop playing. “Shit!” RC cursed under her breath. “I just hope our mega bitch RA didn’t hear that.”
     “Hurry,” D hissed as they emerged onto their floor, “your room is closest. We’ll dump our stuff there.”
     “I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying,” RC hissed back as she struggled to punch in her combination. The lock clicked and six people dove in, closing the door behind them as the RA’s door opened.
     “Shit, Karen’s going to go nuclear,” D whispered as footsteps echoed down the hall. The door to the stairs opened, then closed. A moment later the door opened and closed again, soft cursing echoing down the halls. Another door opened, then slammed shut. All six breathed a sigh of relief.
     “That takes care of the RA,” Erin smiled as she opened the door and peeked out. “Coast is clear. Let’s go.”
     They slipped out of RC’s room and into the stairwell, which was completely empty. From the stairwell they exited to the street, where they breathed another sigh of relief.
     “That was too close,” Donat sighed, “I don’t even go to school here and I was worried.”
     “Karen is such a mega bitch,” D sighed, “I’m so glad we don’t have to deal with her right now. Man, I’d love to hit her over the head with a fireball.”
     “Ditto,” RC sighed, “man, she’s got PMS on a mega level.”
     “Let’s just get to the store,” Tina said, “that way we can get on with our ghost hunt.”
     “You know where all the ghosts are?” an old man asked from the shadows, which startled all of them since he more or less came from nowhere.
     “More or less,” Alex said nonchalantly, “There’s the watcher in Congreave, Mary in Smith, the cleaning woman in Hamiltion Smith, the creepy janitor in Murkland, and the little boy in T-hall tower.”
     “You forgot a few,” the old man said.
     “Lemme see, there’s also the girl in Stoke who took a header not too long ago,” Donat said, “Oh, and the creepy vibes from the woods.”
     The old man’s eyes widened. “You know about the spirits behind the Gables apartments?”
     “Yup,” Erin said, “we did research into the matter. We know all about the Durham Massacre during the war, and how there used to be an old war fort stationed where the equestrian track is now located.”
     The old man stopped in his tracks. “You.. you know all that?”
     D nodded. “Alex here is our psychic saturation expert. He’s usually one of the first to feel anything. Tina and Erin are those who feel the spiritual pull and channel spirits. Donat can hear what we can’t see...”
     “And you two?” the old man asked, indicating RC and D.
     “We’re just along for the ride and moral support,” RC grinned, “and to take pictures if somebody’s head explodes.”
     The old man sighed. “Whatever you do, be very careful, and may the forces that be protect you.”
     “We will be,” Erin said as she bounced off towards the store.
     “We always are,” Alex grinned, “Take care of yourself, and thank you.”
     ‘These kids are those who are destined to free those tormented souls?’ the old man said to nobody in particular as the six bounced, skipped, and walked off. He sighed, a sweat drop forming on his head. ‘They’re going to need all the help they can get.’

     The six were just barely stepping into Campus Convenience when a familiar voice said, “Hey guys, why are you out at this weird hour?”
     Alex pivoted to find a young man with spiky purple - dyed - brown hair standing in the doorway, and smiled at him. “Hey Darren, why are you out at this hour?”
     Darren smiled. “Well, you know my secret identity,” he purred, batting his brown eyes at everyone, “I am... the king of the night.”
     “Who’s he?” Tina asked, eyeing Darren.
     “Guys, this is my friend, Darren Wilder,” Alex said, “Darren, meet the university paranormal studies club, otherwise known as Donat, Tina, Erin, D, and RC.”
     “A pleasure to meet all of you,” Darren said, bowing to all of them, “but would you mind answering my original question? Why are you out at this hour?”
     “We’re out at this hour in order to go ghost hunting,” Donat explained, “or that’s what these guys say. I’m just along for the ride, really.”
     “And you can answer my question,” Alex smirked, “why are you here?”
     “Darren, you need any munchies?” a female voice before a shock of fire engine red hair popped from around a corner. A moment later a very beautiful young lady stepped from around the corner and stood next to Darren, adjusting her headband.
     “Hey Alex,” the young lady said, waving to him, “S’up?”
     “So Cassi had the munchies?” Alex asked, smiling at Cassi.
     “Hey D, she’s in our art class,” RC said, tugging on D’s sleeve.
     “You two are the ones who are always giggling,” Cassi smirked.
     "And you're that girl whose artwork is beyond awesome," D said. RC nodded.
     “A pleasure to meet you,” the three said in unison.
     “Cassi, we need to get home,” Darren said, a little impatient with having to wait, “you have your munchies?”
     “Yup,” Cassi replied, holding up three types of chips, a bag of cookies, and two bottles of FIRE drink. “Good luck on your ghost hunt.”
     “Good luck on the new diet,” Alex chuckled as he began his search for something to munch on. The other five soon joined him, all snagging something or other before making their way to the register, and from there back outside.
     “This place looks fairly busy for a 1 AM Saturday morning,” Donat commented as a wide variety of college students walked up and down the sidewalks in pairs and groups.
     “Of course it is,” Erin said, “the most popular sport at this time of night is bar hopping.”
     They continued up the main street, weaving around or through groups of people who were in various states of intoxication. A short time later they were passing the student union building, Alex stopping since a familiar prickle began on the back of his neck. Tina stopped as well, since she could sense something that was active.
     “The spirits are restless, aren’t they?” Donat asked. Both nodded.
     “More than likely it’s from Ham Smith,” Erin said, “or it’s from Hood house, which is the old hospital ward right next to it.”
     “We should be moving along,” Alex said, the prickle moving down the middle of his back in an icy cold chill.
     “In full agreement,” RC said. She pointed towards the expanse of lawn between the old ward and the road. “Check those out.”
     Ghostly shapes were beginning to appear, many wearing bandages, some missing limbs, and all in some state of decay or another. The hair on the back of their necks prickled, and Alex shuddered as cold chills ran up and down his spine.
     “Honest to goodness spirits,” Erin whispered, “Fully formed, non free floating manifestations of the spiritual essence of the deceased.”
     “But are they good or evil?” RC asked, “I mean, will they hurt us if we stick around here much longer?”
     “I think that pretty much answers our question,” D said, nudging RC while pointing at the spirits, whose eyes were now glowing an eerie blood red.
     “They’re coming after us,” Donat said as he began to move up the sidewalk.
     “Which means we run away!!” Erin said, leading the charge up the street as the ghosts began to chase them.
     As they ran screaming up the street Alex cried, “To the protection circle in front of T-hall!”
     “Where’s that?” Donat asked. The question was barely out of his mouth when Alex grabbed him by the arm and hauled him hard to the left, up three steps and onto another sidewalk. In front of them loomed the clock tower, and closer than that was the flagpole.
     Alex skidded to a stop in front of the flagpole, just inside the circular bench that encompassed it. Donat stopped as well, feeling the prickling of his skin subside a little bit.
     “Welcome to the lifeboat,” Tina said, taking a seat against the flagpole. “The safest place on campus when the spirits are restless.”
     “We’re currently inside a goddess circle inside the center of a demon circle,” Erin explained, “the six points will keep us safe, so long as we remain inside the circle.”
     “Guys, what about the ghosts?” RC asked, pointing at the still advancing spirit group which, by now, was a short distance from them.
     “What about them?” Alex asked casually, taking a long swig of his drink.
     “They’ll...”
     Alex wagged his finger before pointing at a couple of ghosts that were lunging to attack. RC, D, and Donat recoiled a little. Erin and Tina smirked as the spirits crashed into the perimeter of the magic circle and bounced off. The spirits lunged a couple more time before falling back to wait for reinforcements.
     “Amazing,” D said after a moment, “real magic, like out of an anime or something.”
     “Well, when you have two witches in your party then it gets easy,” Erin smiled. Her eyes glazed over a moment later, and she began to twitch a little.
     “What’s going on?” Donat asked, “What’s wrong with her?”
     Erin blinked a few times before speaking in a little boy’s voice. “You are the chosen ones, aren’t you?” the voice asked. The other five looked at one another before shrugging collectively. “Do not fear for your friend,” the voice continued, “she will be all right. I have simply borrowed her body for a few minutes in order to speak directly with you.”
     “You’re the boy from the clock tower,” Tina gasped. Erin nodded.
     “She’s channeling the ghost of the little boy?” RC asked.
     “Not channeling so much as temporarily possessed,” Alex replied, “but why borrow her body?”
     A great roar filled the air as the ghosts from the infirmary began an assault against their protective circle.
     “There is not much time,” the voice continued. “The spirits are restless tonight, and unless those chosen by the powers that be do something, all hope will be lost come morning, for a great force of darkness will have opened a gateway between the worlds.”
     A bright light filled the air, stemming from the outer perimeter of the magic circle. Cracks of light began to form in the air as the spiritual onslaught continued.
     “Are we the chosen ones?” D asked, fear tingeing her voice.
     There was a pause as Erin studied each of them. “Yes,” the voice said, “you are. You will regain all you need when the time is right.”
     “The barrier’s going to shatter at any moment,” Donat said, “we need to get out of here.”
     “My time is up,” the voice screamed before Erin fell limply to the ground. A loud cracking sound filled the air a moment later as ghostly hands began to reach through the barrier.
     “We are so outta here,” Alex said as he threw Erin over his shoulder and made a hasty retreat from the crumbling “lifeboat” area. Only a few steps behind him were the other four, all of whom were shouting at the top of their lungs.
     They stopped a short distance past Murkland and turned to watch the light from the circle of protection fade out forever. A loud scream filled the air, and Tina fell to her knees, covering her ears.
     “He’s screaming and crying,” she said over the racket, “we need to complete whatever we got ourselves into so that all will return to relatively normal.”
     Alex took a crystal pendulum from his pocket and let it fall, the crystal swinging slowly upon the chain as it reached the end of its tether. The swing slowly became a circular motion, and a moment later it swung sharply in the direction of the Gables apartments, with such force that Alex almost let go.
     “The strongest spiritual force is in that direction,” he said.
     “Which means that we need to conquer our fears and kick some ghostly ass,” Erin moaned as she sat up. “Now how the hell did I get here, and why does my head hurt so?”
     “We’ll explain in a few minutes,” Donat said, taking a seat next to her. “For now it looks like the ghosts have stopped in front of T-hall.”
     “They’re absorbing the light and turning it to darkness,” D said, her voice cold and business like. “We need to hurry lest a worse fate befall the world.”
     “D’s right,” RC said, “our RP characters wouldn’t hesitate to save the world, and neither are we.”
     “Then our next stop is the woods behind the Gables,” Erin said as Donat and Alex helped her to her feet. “You coming Tina?”
     “Yeah,” Tina said as she rose,” I’m coming.”
 ‘And together we’ll stop this evil force in its tracks,’ Alex thought as they set out across the campus towards the one place that made their skin tingle from the amount of spiritual energy - the Gables Apartments.

     Several minutes later they arrived at the end of A-lot that led to the Gables Apartments, and beyond that the heaviest concentration of spiritual energy anywhere on the campus or in the Durham area. Twice they had stopped to take pendulum readings, and twice the crystals had nearly leapt from those holding them.
     “Here we are,” RC said as they reached the Gables lot, “the place where we’ll meet some mega horrible, bloody, and painful demise.”
     “Makes me want to go home and hide under the covers,” Donat said, shuddering. “Thanks for the wonderful pep talk, RC.”
     “C’mon,” Alex called from the edge of the field that led to the woods, “are you slow pokes coming or not?”
     “Too late to turn back now,” D said as she watched Alex, Tina, and Erin cross over the stone wall that separated the field from the lot.
     “Well dudes, we do like our RP characters,” RC said, taking a deep breath, “I’m sure they’d go in with no fear.”
     ‘Little do they know that I’m the embodiment of Delwynndwn Siele,’ Donat thought as he crawled over the stone wall. “Alex, Tina, hold up.”
     Alex and Tina stopped to wait for the other three, with Erin stopping a little further on. The air around them suddenly became still and chilly, and the normal night time noises slowly drifted off to silence. Alex felt his stomach lurch as a great force filled the area.
     “I hear marching in the distance,” Donat said as he stopped near the other three. “Marching, and hooves.”
     “I’m sensing multiple energy forms,” Alex said, his eyes closed in concentration. His eyes snapped open a moment later, and he pointed towards the entrance to the woods. “Over there is where they’ll be coming from.
     “I’m officially creeped out,” RC said, “even though I can’t sense anything I’m still creeped out.”
     Something whistled through the air, striking a tree with a loud THWACK. D shone her flashlight over at the tree, and all of them gasped when they saw an arrow embedded in the trunk, the end still quivering from the impact. Several more objects whistled through the air over their heads, and these also embedded themselves in trees or bounced off of rocks.
     “They’re toying with us,” D grumbled as all went quiet again.
     “They want something,” Donat said, his muscles tensing.
     “Yeah, us to leave,” RC said as she turned to leave, only to have an arrow whizz past her nose. “Or not,” she added, backing up and assuming a defensive stance.
     “I swear they’re all over the place,” Alex said, pointing in three different directions. “They’re trying to surround us.”
     “Must be Indians,” Tina said, “they move with great stealth, which makes it all the more dangerous for us.”
     A deathly calm came over the area as the group looked around, trying to discern where their unearthly and invisible attackers would be coming from. The sharp report of a rifle rang through the air and Erin screamed in pain before dropping to the ground, clutching her side. RC and D went to check on her, and both were shocked and horrified to find blood oozing from a wound.
     "We're not playing a game any more, are we?" RC asked, turning pale.
     "I'm afraid the game ended a long time ago," Alex said as he took on a defensive stance. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, alerting him to something standing behind him. He flattened himself to the ground moments before another rifle shot rang out, a tree that was in front of him being torn apart by the bullet. He flipped to his feet and whirled around, trying to guess his attacker's intentions. "Tina, where is the next attack going to come from?"
     "I'm trying to find out, just give me a second" Tina said, her crystal pendant swinging before her in a concentrated circle. The pendant swung hard to the left, and at that same moment another shot rang out. Donat threw himself at Tina, taking her legs out as the bullet tore over their heads, lodging itself in a car in the parking lot behind them.
     "They're all around us," Alex said, all of the hairs on his body itching from the amount of residual psychic energy in the air.
     "So do something!" D snapped, "Don't just give us a report on the conditions. I know we're bloody surrounded and there's nothing we can do!"
     "I'm the bloody psychic saturation expert, not the bleedin' Hulk!" Alex snapped back. The hum of an incantation filled the air, and a protection dome formed around them. He turned to see Donat with his eyes shut, a mystical glow coming from his hands.
     "We should be safe for a short time," Donat said, his voice lacking emotion due to the intense concentration required for his spell.
     Tina looked up from where she lay, the faint outline of an elf with long blonde hair dressed in a white karate gi forming over Donat for a brief moment. She looked up at Alex, seeing the outline of armor and a flowing cape around his body. "You.... both of you are not what you seem," she said as she struggled to sit up. "You... were sent to protect us on these hunts, were you not?"
     "You might say that," Alex said, "but right now we need to take care of the problems at hand. Delwynndwn, how long can you maintain the shield?"
     "Rough estimate, another two minutes.... and that's if they're behaving themselves," Donat replied.
     "That gives me just enough time to unlock the memories of the others," Alex said, taking what looked remarkably like a tube of chapstick from his pants pocket. He removed the cap to reveal the true nature of the device. Beams of light emerged, striking D and RC in the foreheads. "Remember your past, and help us now."
     And they remembered everything clearly, as if it were yesterday.
     "Lady Alorianna, reporting for duty," RC said as she stood, giving a salute.
     "And  Amaya, also reporting for duty," D said as she stood as well, "what's the situation."
     "We're currently surrounded on all sides by spirits with malicious intent. Delwynndwn is maintaining a barrier, but that's not going to hold..."
     He didn't get a chance to finish the sentence since the sound of glass shattering filled the air, which was followed by a fresh hail of bullets. A new barrier formed around each of them as time was temporarily frozen. The would be warriors looked down at Tina to see her hands glowing as her memories unlocked.
     "I am called Tina N'maloran, and I shall aid you in the defeat of this evil."
     'My life gets more complicated by the day,' Alex thought as he helped Tina to her feet, 'First I accidentally unlocked Donat's dormant memories, or I should say Delwynndwn's. Now I've gotten D, RC, and Tina involved. This is not looking good for the others.'
     "How much longer can you maintain the freeze of time?" Alorianna asked.
     "Long enough for us to get back to the parking lot. Erin requires a healing spell, and may need somebody to explain things to her."
     "One thing at a time," Amaya said as she lifted Erin by the shoulders. Delwynndwn lifted Erin's legs and the two quickly spirited her back to the parking lot. Alex, Alorianna, and Tina followed closely behind. The minute their feet hit pavement the time freeze was released and the spirits behind the Gables found that their targets had moved.
     "We're in serious trouble," Alex said as his skin began to crawl, "there's something behind us, across the parking lot, and I can't discern whether it's good or bad."
     "That's a watcher spirit," Erin said weakly as she struggled to sit up. Del and D had to lean on her shoulders and knees to keep her from moving any more. She sighed and gave in to their pressure. "It's neither good nor evil... it just watches and helps which ever side needs it the most."
     "Right at the moment we need him on our side," Tina said as several more rifle reports rang out, bullets whistling above their heads to lodge in trees and cars. "We're not going to survive long enough to use a healing spell if this keeps up."
     "Then I guess it's time for us to stand and fight," Alex said as he stood, the jewel in the ring on his right hand glittering as he resolved a course of action. He hoisted his hand to the sky and shouted, "Saturn Star Power.... Transform!"