The Elemental Five, Part 2

Once Mona and Lily had dropped Fang off, they headed for the Dream Caverns. Their attention was diverted, however, as they saw Lawrence rushing along the pavement at top speed.
  “Is he on official Zapiteer business, do you think?” Lily giggled.
  “We’d better check,” Mona decided. “If there’s something going down, we don’t want Charley and his conservationists making a balls-up of it. Hey, Lawrence!”
Lawrence stopped briefly, looking very agitated.
  “Oh, hi Mona,” he said. “Can’t stop now – I’m meeting Charley and the others.”
  “Oh yes?” Mona asked interestedly. “Where?”
  “At the city dump,” Lawrence provided. “Apparently someone spotted a zombie there.”
  “A zombie, huh?” said Mona. “That could be serious. I think we should come along too.”
  “Surely Charley can handle one zombie,” said Lily. “I think we should get to Norwich – remember how important Treguard said it was that we speak to his niece quickly.”
  “One zombie can soon become an epidemic,” Mona pointed out. “You’ve seen George Romero’s Living Dead trilogy as often as I have, Lily, and we don’t want any of that going on in our town, do we? I won’t be happy until I know this is dealt with.”

In the Great Hall of Knightmare, Treguard was gazing into his magic pool.
  “The Green Eye is growing stronger by the hour,” a vision of Merlin was saying from beneath the water’s surface. “I have most of the ritual prepared, but we need that blood as soon as possible.”
  “I have sent Mona and Lily to Norwich to retrieve it,” Treguard replied. “I’m sure they won’t let us down.”
  “They had better not,” Merlin said gravely. “If that Eye gets strong enough to begin to reshape the Dungeon… it just doesn’t bear thinking about, Treguard.”
  “I’m sure that even now, Mona and Lily are winning my niece over to our cause,” Treguard said confidently. “We have to give them a bit of time, though – Fay will not be that easy to deal with.”
  “Time is the one thing we don’t have,” Merlin sighed. “I’ll throw some more enchantments at the abomination to try and keep its powers at bay, but I hope those girls hurry up! Wherever they are now, they’d better be getting hold of that blood!”

At the city dump, Lawrence ran up to join Charley, Dottie, Simon and Colin, who were standing in a big circle and scouring the large heaps of smelly rubbish with intense scrutiny. Mona and Lily watched them with interest.
  “I heard you had a zombie problem, Charley,” Mona ventured. “Need any help?”
  “I can deal with it just fine, thank you,” Charley replied shortly. “Once my team and I locate the fiend, we’ll have the matter dealt with in no time at all.”
  “You do know how to incapacitate a zombie, don’t you?” Mona asked.
  “Of course I do!” Charley snapped. “What’s more, we’re not going to stand around waiting anymore. If that fiend is here then the Zapiteers will find it! Dottie, use your mental powers to search for any sentient beings nearby.”
  “Yes, Zapman,” Dottie agreed readily, clasping her ringed finger to her chest. “Heart!”
Dottie’s face screwed up in concentration as Charley stared at her expectantly. Mona decided to see how the Zapiteers were going to deal with this situation, and so she said nothing.
  “I’ve got something,” Dottie said at last. “There’s brain activity over to the left, behind that big container, but it’s very weak.”
  “It must be the zombie!” Charley decided. “Come on, Zapiteers!”
Charley led his team towards the garbage container, and Mona and Lily followed. Behind it they found a girl feeding on the carcass of a rat. She looked to be about ten years old, but her glazed eyes and savage expression seemed to suggest that she was no longer among the living. She looked up when the group arrived, blood and gore dripping from her lips.
  “It’s just a little girl!” Dottie exclaimed.
  “Such a sight makes my heart weep,” sighed Colin. “She is so young.”
  “You mean she was,” said Mona. “That creature may look like a little girl, but it’s an undead monster, and a flesh-eater to boot!”
The girl dropped the rat and heaved herself up to a standing position. Her dead eyes took in the seven people surrounding her and she began to shuffle forwards, moaning alarmingly and opening her mouth.
  “Mona’s right!” Charley exclaimed. “No matter what this creature looks like, we still have to deal with it. Earth!”
Charley pointed his power ring at the zombie and showered her with a barrage of sharp stones. She swatted them all aside, however, and made a grab for Charley. He stepped back in alarm, and then Mona stepped up and punched the zombie girl in the face. She fell back, and Charley scowled.
  “I told you, Mona, we can handle this,” he said. “Lawrence, you try.”
  “Er, all right then,” Lawrence gulped, pointing his ring at the zombie. “Fire!”
Flames shot out at the monster, but succeeded only in singeing her clothes and hair. Lawrence ducked away from her clawing grasp.
  “I will save us, Master Zapman!” declared Simon. “Wind!”
A terrific gust shot from Simon’s ring, but it had no effect on the zombie. Colin then tried drenching her, but this only succeeded in making her very angry indeed.
  “Are you sure you don’t want me to deal with this?” Mona asked heavily, picking up a heavy wooden bedpost from the ground beside her.
  “No!” cried Charley, grappling once again with the zombie and throwing her off him. “We can deal with this. If our powers on their own cannot stop this creature, we’ll have to combine them. Earth!”
  “Fire!” cried Lawrence.
  “Wind!” cried Simon.
  “Water!” cried Colin.
  “Heart!” added Dottie.
  “Go Planet!” they all yelled.
There was an explosion of light and Captain Planet was amongst them once again.
  “By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!” he declared. “What’s up, Kwame?”
  “It’s Zapman,” Charley corrected him. “And can’t you see what’s up?”
Captain Planet looked at the dump around him, and caught sight of the zombie, who was being held at bay as Mona menaced it with her Dracula amulet and the bedpost she had picked up.
  “Of course!” Captain Planet declared. “This is terrible! Just look at all the recyclable stuff that the good people of this city have thrown out. You were right to bring me in on this, Kwame. I’ll deal with it.”
Captain Planet took to the air and zoomed right into the nearest pile of rubbish, looking for items that could be recycled.
  “But the zombie!” Charley protested. “You’re supposed to kill the zombie for us!”
  “For goodness sake, Charley, this is how you do it!” Mona cried frustratedly. “You can’t recycle anything to death, you know.”
Mona brought her bedpost crashing down hard on the zombie girl’s head several times. Blood and brain matter went flying everywhere, and the girl’s lifeless corpse fell to the floor.
  “Oh my God!” Dottie grimaced. “That was disgusting.”
  “There, that’s how you deal with zombies,” Mona stated. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have to get to Norwich. Come on, Lily.”
  “I could have dealt with it, you know!” Charley yelled after Mona and Lily’s retreating forms. “I just needed more…”
  “Come on, Zapiteers!” Captain Planet called from the air. “I could use your help with this. I’ve started piles for wood, plastic, glass and paper – join in the conservation fun!”
  “Oh dear,” Dottie sighed. “Things aren’t quite going according to plan, are they Charley?”
  “Just get collecting, okay?” Charley growled. “This isn’t over yet.”

Mona and Lily used the Dream Caverns to travel to Fay’s house.
  “So what do we say to her?” Lily wondered.
  “I don’t know,” Mona replied. “I’m sure something’ll come to me.”
She rang the doorbell. After a few seconds, a young man in his mid-twenties opened the door. He had brown hair and wore a red dressing gown.
  “Oh, hello,” he said in surprise when he saw Mona and Lily. “Who are you?”
  “We, erm…” Mona faltered. “We’d like to speak to Fay, please.”
  “You would?” the man queried. “Are you students from one of her classes?”
  “Sure, yeah, that’s who we are,” Mona agreed readily. “Can we see her?”
  “We need to ask her about an essay she set us,” Lily said brightly. “It’s about, erm, King Henry the fourth.”
  “But I thought Fay taught English,” the man said confusedly.
  “Yeah, well, it’s about the play Henry the Fourth,” Mona said hastily. “That’s Shakespeare, you know. Fay’s been teaching us about it.”  
  “Oh, right,” the man nodded. “Well, I’m William, Fay’s husband. I’m afraid she’s not here right now. Don’t you have to call her Mrs Hughes at school?”
  “Yeah, we do,” Mona assured him. “But not here. Did you say she’s not home? When’s she coming back?”
  “In three days,” William replied. “She’s on a teaching course in Great Yarmouth, staying in a hotel. You’ve only just missed her, actually. She left about fifteen minutes ago, just before I decided to have a bath.”
  “Damn!” Mona cursed. “Three days is too long. Can you tell us where she’s staying?”
  “Wow, you really are dedicated students,” William remarked. “Are you sure this can’t wait until she gets back?”
  “No, it really can’t!” Mona insisted.
  “Okay, well I’ll write down the name of the hotel for you,” William agreed. “I’m sure Fay will be surprised to see you.”
  “Oh, I bet she will,” Mona agreed. “Thanks for your help.”
With the hotel address in hand, Mona and Lily walked back towards the Dream Caverns.
  “Well, Fay’s husband was certainly helpful,” Lily said warmly. “I liked him.”
  “It’s a shame we just missed Fay,” Mona sighed. “Now we’ve got to chase her up. If only we hadn’t hung around helping Charley for so long then we would have caught her!”
  “Better that than to have our town overrun with zombies when we got back,” Lily pointed out. “So, are we going to Great Yarmouth now?”
  “You bet your ass we are,” Mona said determinedly. “I don’t care how long this takes… damn it, we can’t!”
  “Why not?” asked Lily.
  “We’re due at the vet’s soon, aren’t we?” Mona remembered. “There’s nothing for it – we’ll just have to go to this hotel afterwards.”
  “But it’ll be getting dark,” Lily protested. “No one’s going to let us into a hotel in the middle of the night.”
  “Well we have to try,” Mona insisted. “You don’t have to come if you’d rather go home to bed, Lily.”
  “No, I’ll come,” Lily hastily back-pedalled. “I’m not going to abandon you now, Mona.”
  “I suppose as nighttime missions go, this is one of the less dangerous ones we’ve carried out,” Mona considered. “Come on, let’s go and see Dr Valiant – perhaps he has Fang’s results already.”

Mona and Lily were soon in Dr Valiant’s consultation room, staring at the vet expectantly as he studied a small sheet of paper.
  “Yes, there’s the problem,” Dr Valiant nodded. “Fang has salt crystals in his urine. I’ll give you something to dissolve them.”
  “Salt crystals?” Mona queried. “How did they get there?”
  “Well, your cat’s obviously been eating too much salt,” Dr Valiant deduced. “Have you been feeding him potato chips of any kind?”
  “No, he only eats cat food,” Mona puzzled.
  “Well, even that has a little salt in it,” the vet said. “Fang’s kidneys must have developed a small fault. Just make sure he takes one of these tablets twice a day and he’ll be back to normal in no time. You can mix them in with his food.”
Mona accepted the packet of pills that the vet handed to her. She was glad that Fang’s problem could be fixed very easily, but she could not understand how he could have ingested so much salt as to prevent him from passing water.
  “I’ve put all today’s expenses on your father’s account,” Dr Valiant told Mona. “I hope Fang gets better soon. Good evening to you.”
  “Yeah, thanks, Doc,” Mona smiled gratefully. “I’ll start Fang on these tonight.”
Once Mona had returned home and fed Fang some cat food with a mashed-up pill in it, she and Lily set off for the Dream Caverns once again. It was getting dark now, but they pressed onwards undeterred.
  “I’ve got the name of the hotel here, so the ley-lines should bring us as close as they can,” Mona said. “We should be able to find Fay without too much trouble.”

Mona and Lily arrived on the forecourt of a large railway station. Night had settled in but the place was well lit.
  “Hmm, this must be Great Yarmouth station,” Mona assumed. “The hotel must be nearby.”
  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Lily said. “Look up there.”
Mona followed Lily’s pointing finger until her gaze alighted on an area of wall just above the entrance to the railway station, where two words were spelt out in large plastic letters.
  “Norwich Station,” Mona read out. “Is this the best the Dream Caverns could do?”
  “I guess so,” said Lily.
  “But we’re miles away from Great Yarmouth!” Mona fumed.
  “Well, then we’ll just have to catch a train,” Lily sighed. “Look, there’s a bureau de change just inside the station building. Let’s see if we can pool enough money to buy two tickets to Great Yarmouth.”
Lily’s plan paid off. Soon Mona and Lily were standing on a station platform, each with a ticket in hand, watching a two-carriage green train with Anglia Railways printed on its side pulling into Norwich station.
  “This is gonna take ages!” Mona fumed, looking up at the train indicator screen. “Look at all those stations it stops at. Why couldn’t we find a fast train, huh?”
  “It’ll get us there eventually,” Lily soothed Mona. “Just calm down and we’ll make it just fine.”
  “The seven twelve service to Great Yarmouth is now boarding on platform six,” an announcer’s voice crackled over a nearby speaker. “This service calls at Brundall Gardens, Brundall, Buckenham, Cantley, Reedham, Berney Arms and Great Yarmouth.”
  “This is gonna take all night,” Mona cursed as they boarded the train. “And then we’ve still got to find the hotel, and Fay!”
  “Chill out, Mona,” Lily advised. “We’ll be there before you know it.”

Forty-five minutes later, the train pulled in to Great Yarmouth station. Mona burst out of one of the doors and Lily followed behind.
  “God, it absolutely crawled all the way!” Mona fumed. “We might as well have walked.”
  “I think that’s a slight exaggeration, Mona,” said Lily. “Anyway, we’re here now and that’s the main thing.”
  “You’re right, Lily,” Mona agreed. “The most difficult part of the journey is over – travelling on a British train. Now all we have to do is find the hotel, get to see Fay and persuade her to give us a blood sample. Easy!”
In the station forecourt, Lily found a tourist information map. Fortunately enough, the road with Fay’s hotel in it was only a little way along the seafront from the railway station. Mona and Lily began their walk.
  “The sea’s very pretty in the moonlight,” Lily smiled. “Do you know which sea it is, Mona?”
  “The North Sea, I think,” Mona replied. “And you’re right, it is pretty, but we’ve got work to do. There’s the road we want – come on.”

Mona and Lily marched up to the front desk of the Yare Hotel. It was a well-to-do establishment that was unused to unannounced visitors bursting through its doors in the middle of the night. The receptionist was just about to go home, but she knew her plans were ruined as soon as she saw Mona and Lily.
  “Can I help you two?” she asked dubiously.
  “We need to speak to Fay Hughes,” Mona stated. “What room is she in?”
  “I’m afraid I really can’t give out that information just like that,” the receptionist bristled. “Are you a relative?”
Mona growled and shook out her vampire features. She jumped effortlessly onto the desk and grabbed the front of the receptionist’s shirt in a most threatening manner.
  “I’ll tell you who I am,” she snarled, in her most alarming bestial voice. “I’m someone who’s gonna make your life extremely unpleasant if you don’t tell me right now where Fay Hughes is! I’m trying to stop the world from being overrun with ultimate evil and so I’m really not interested in your hotel’s stupid rules and regulations, got it?”
  “Room eleven, on the second floor,” the receptionist replied in alarm. “Go on up and see her if you really want to, I don’t care. I’m going home!”
   “Thank you,” Mona smiled pleasantly, jumping down from the desk. “Come on, Lily.”
Mona led the way up the hotel’s grand staircase to the second floor. Here the two girls quickly found room eleven and rapped on the door.
  “Who is it?” asked a female voice from within. “I didn’t order room service.”
  “I’ll tell you who it is,” Mona began to growl. “It’s…”
  “It’s a bomb scare!” Lily quickly interrupted. “We need to evacuate the hotel as quickly as possible.”
  “Oh my God!” the occupant of the room cried. “I’ll be right out.”
  “Good thinking, Lily,” Mona approved. “Now, when she opens the door, I’ll grab her and you lock us all in.”
  “Er, okay,” Lily agreed. “Don’t be too rough with her, will you? We do need her help, remember.”
  “Relax, Lily,” Mona scoffed. “I’m in control.”
A black-haired woman in a blue bathrobe opened the door of room eleven. When she saw Mona’s fanged face she stepped back in alarm, and Mona shoved her into the room. Lily followed Mona and Fay into the room and locked the door behind them.
  “What is all this?” Fay asked angrily. “Just who do…”
  “Sit down, Mrs Hughes, and save your questions for later,” Mona ordered authoritatively. “We’ve got some stuff to tell you, and you may well have a lot you want to ask us when we’ve finished.”

That evening, on her way home from a ballet lesson, Dottie had a most unpleasant encounter. She was walking along one of the town’s less busy streets when an enormous werewolf jumped out from the shadows and began to growl at her menacingly.
  “Jesus Christ!” Dottie exclaimed. “A werewolf. But the full moon isn’t until tomorrow!”
Fear kept Dottie pinned to the spot on the pavement as the monster advanced on her. At a loss for what else to do, she held up her power ring.
  “Heart!” Dottie declared.
The effect was immediate. At once the werewolf whined piteously and scurried off in the other direction. But that was not an end to the matter, for the experience had had an effect on Dottie as well. Although she had been previously unaware of the fact, using the heart ring gave her certain psychic abilities. Now she had picked up a most worrying vibe from the werewolf, and she knew she had to tell someone about it.
  “I should go to Mona,” Dottie realised. “But I’m supposed to be a Zapiteer – Charley would never forgive me for betraying him. Ah, I know! I’ll go to him first and see what he has to say. Ooh, I hope he decides to let Mona in on this, otherwise… well, I’ll have to see what happens.”
Dottie sprinted towards Charley’s house as fast as her dainty legs would carry her.

Fay gazed at Mona and Lily with an expression that showed disbelief and indignation.
  “I don’t think she believes us,” Lily whispered to Mona.
  “No duh,” Mona replied.
  “Just who the hell do you two think you are, coming to me in the middle of the night with this ridiculous fairytale?” Fay frowned. “Is this some sort of joke? Who sent you here to me?”
  “It was your husband William, actually,” Mona replied breezily. “We told him how urgent it was that we see you and he very kindly gave us the name and address of this hotel.”
  “I don’t believe you,” Fay replied, but she was obviously having doubts. “I’m going to telephone William right now and clear this whole thing up.”
  “Be my guest,” Mona smiled toothily. “Perhaps he will have something useful to contribute to the situation.”
Fay grabbed the telephone beside her bed and dialled her home number. After a few seconds, Mona and Lily could see from Fay’s expression that someone had answered at the other end.
  “Will?” Fay barked. “It’s Fay. I… Yes, I know it’s late but I have to talk to you. Uh-huh… Yes… They’re on the top shelf of the fridge at the back… No, just put half a capful in the middle compartment of the drawer… There’s a new bottle underneath the sink, with the Mr Muscle. Listen, did you send a couple of girls here to see me? Why did you do that? No, they’re not, you idiot! They’re lunatics and they’ve just told me some cock-and-bull story about me being the niece of some thirteenth-century baron. What? What do you mean it’s true? How could…?”
There followed a long pause in Fay’s end of the conversation. Mona looked at Lily triumphantly.
  “I thought William might back us up,” she said.
  “You did?” Lily queried. “Why?”
  “Well, you remember Treguard telling us that William helped Fay to save Smirkenorff as a baby one time?” Mona reminded her. “Well, just because Fay’s forgotten everything, that’s not to say that William has, is it?”
  “Oh yes, of course,” Lily realised. “Excellent – if anyone can convince Fay to help it’s her own husband.”
  “Yes, okay,” Fay said numbly into the phone. “See you soon.”
Fay grabbed her car keys and headed for the door. She turned to Mona and Lily.
  “Come on,” she said. “We’re going back to Norwich right now.”
  “We are?” Mona queried. “But what about your conference?”
  “To Hell with that!” Fay exclaimed. “This is more important. We’ll take my land rover, and on the way you can explain exactly what you want from me. Come on.”
  “Well, this can’t be a bad development,” Lily remarked as they followed Fay out of the hotel.
  “Yes, and it means we don’t have to take the train back again,” Mona added happily.

Charley took the agitated Dottie into his living room and they both sat down on the sofa.
  “Now, what’s all this you’re saying to me?” Charley struggled to comprehend. “You saw a werewolf and it gave you some sort of psychic message.”
  “Yes, that’s right,” Dottie nodded. “I’m sure it was because of my power ring. The first thing I noticed was odd is that the full moon isn’t until tomorrow, but the werewolf was out and about anyway.”
  “Yes, that is strange,” Charley agreed. “Tell me more about this psychic message.”
  “I suppose it was more of a vibe than a message,” Dottie considered. “But its meaning was clear enough. That werewolf is one of three harbingers for a very evil creature called Grendel. The other two harbingers were the vampire and the zombie that Mona… that we killed, and if this werewolf dies too, Grendel cannot rise.”
  “Grendel,” Charley mused. “I wonder what sort of creature that is. It must be pretty bad if the vampire, the zombie and the werewolf are just its lackeys.”
  “So what shall we do?” Dottie fretted. “I think we should tell Mona about it.”
  “Certainly not!” Charley snapped. “I didn’t break away from Mona just to go running back to her at the first sign of trouble.”
  “But this could be really serious,” Dottie protested. “We have no idea what sort of creature this Grendel might be and…”
  “We don’t have to know what sort of creature it is,” Charley interrupted. “If we can find this werewolf of yours and kill it, all three harbingers will be dead and Grendel won’t be able to rise from whatever layer of Hell he’s festering in.”
  “Hmm, I suppose that’s the best plan,” Dottie conceded. “But I still think Mona…”
  “Nonsense!” Charley dismissed the notion. “We can deal with this. I’ll call the Zapiteers together tomorrow evening and we’ll go out werewolf-hunting. Be here at seven o’clock sharp, Dottie.”
  “All right, Charley,” Dottie sighed. “You’re the boss.”

Back in suburban Norwich, Mona and Lily listened intently as William related to Fay the story of their Knightmare adventure ten years previously.
  “So you went back in time almost six hundred years to save a dragon who was to act as an ally for my uncle who I’ve forgotten all about?” Fay asked William.
  “That’s right, my love,” William sighed. “And then you and Treguard went to fight Aesandre, and that was when you forgot all about Knightmare. I promised Treguard that I would never mention it again.”
  “Then why are you?” Fay asked accusingly.
  “Because these two girls are messengers from your uncle,” William explained. “I think we should help them – and him - all we can.”
  “I’m not convinced,” Fay swayed. “They say they want my blood to use in some sort of ritual.”
  “Look, Fay, the fact is that Treguard really needs your help,” Mona said urgently. “We don’t have a great deal of time. Will you come with us to Knightmare or not?”
  “I… I don’t know,” Fay faltered.
  “Your uncle needs your help,” Lily said calmly. “Do you believe us or not?”
  “I suppose so,” Fay sighed. “So what now?”
  “Now we go back to the Dream Caverns!” Mona declared, leaping to her feet. “There’s no time to waste.”
  “I’m coming too,” William announced.
  “Fine – now let’s get moving!” Mona insisted.

The next evening at seven o’clock, Lawrence, Dottie, Colin and Simon met Charley outside his house.
  “Good evening, Master Zapman,” Colin said. “We came as soon as we could.”
  “What mission are the Zapiteers carrying out this evening?” asked Simon.
  “We’re chasing a werewolf,” Charley told them. “This is a hunt and kill mission.”
  “Oh, do we have to?” Lawrence whined. “There’s a programme about Victorian stamps on later and I really…”
  “Are you a part of this team or not, Lawrence?” Charley barked sharply.
  “Sure I am, but…”
  “Then forget about your dumb stamps and pay attention. The only way to kill a werewolf is with silver, and I’ve loaded my granddad’s old army revolver with a couple of silver bullets. If you find the werewolf, use your rings to take him down and then call me; I’ll do the rest.”
  “I’m not sure you should be carrying a handgun around the town, Charley,” Dottie demurred.
  “It’s necessary,” Charley replied shortly. “If we don’t take down this creature then there might be something worse on its way.”
  “I still think we should tell Mona,” Dottie said quietly.
  “We can handle this,” Charley insisted. “We’ll split into pairs and each take a sector of town to hunt in. Remember, one of you must come and find me if you get the werewolf. Whatever damage you can do to it with your power rings won’t kill it, and that is our objective. Colin and Simon, you cover the town centre and the Cabrini Green neighbourhood. Dottie and Lawrence, you take the northern and western areas of town. I’ll search within a one mile radius of our current position so that you all know where to find me.”
  “All right, Charley,” Lawrence agreed. “I might nip into my house on the way and set that stamp programme on the VCR, though.”
  “Fine,” Charley sighed. “Now get moving – we’ve got a werewolf to kill!”

Mona and Lily led William and Fay into the Great Hall of Knightmare. Treguard was there waiting for them, and he rose from his chair as soon as they entered the room.
  “Mona!” he exclaimed. “You’ve brought my niece. Is she willing to give a blood sample?”
  “She is,” Mona confirmed. “Isn’t that right, Fay?”
  “Yes, fine,” Fay agreed. “But afterwards someone has to explain to me exactly what the hell is going on around here.”
  “Of course, of course, but we must get to Merlin first,” Treguard insisted. “Spellcasting: U-N-I-T-E.”
There was a flash of lightning and then all five of them were standing in the underground chamber where Merlin was using all his energy to keep the power of the Green Eye at bay.
  “Treguard!” he exclaimed. “I’m glad you’re here; I have been holding this evil at bay for longer than I would have liked.”
  “Fay is here, ready to give her blood,” Treguard said.
  “Excellent,” Merlin approved. “Just get her to spill a few drops in the centre of the pentangle I have drawn out on the floor, then I will say the magic words to activate the ritual.”
  “Fay, my dear, please come and stand over here,” Treguard requested. “I’m afraid this may sting for a moment.”
Treguard began to draw his sword and Fay flinched in alarm.
  “I’m not letting you cut me with that thing!” she exclaimed.
  “Please, Fay, don’t be difficult!” William cried.
Fay allowed Treguard to spill a few drops of her blood into the centre of the pentangle. At once there was a great explosion of green light, and Merlin began to chant some magic words very loudly. The wizard himself was then surrounded by a green aura, before another explosion forced everyone to close their eyes. When they reopened them, there was no sign of the Green Eye. Where its lids of stone had been only moments before, the Dungeon wall was restored to normal.
  “Did it work?” Lily asked nervously.
  “I think so,” Merlin breathed heavily. “The Eye has gone.”
  “Perhaps now my castle will finally be rid of the Gruagach’s evil completely,” Treguard said. “Are you all right, Merlin?”
  “I do feel drained,” Merlin admitted. “And different somehow, as if this experience has taken something away from me. Still, I’m sure I’ll be fine in a little while.”
  “Now, how about I get a good explanation about all this, huh?” Fay demanded hotly.
  “Of course,” Treguard smiled. “I will tell you all you need to know. Mona and Lily, thank you so much for bringing my niece here to me; you have saved the day once again.”
  “No sweat,” Mona shrugged. “I think we should be getting home now – I have to give Fang his desalination tablets.”

Dottie was using her new-found psychic powers to try and locate the werewolf she had met the night before.
  “Is it nearby?” asked Lawrence, who was following behind her.
  “I think so,” Dottie replied. “But it’s hard to tell. Let’s check out that abandoned warehouse over there.”
  “That sounds a bit dangerous,” Lawrence demurred.
  “Well, we have to start somewhere,” Dottie pointed out. “Come on.”
They ventured into the broken-down, abandoned warehouse. The night was dark and cold, and Lawrence felt very uncomfortable about the situation in which he now found himself. Dottie located a pile of old packing crates in a corner of the warehouse, so she went to investigate. Almost at once, a terrific roar came from behind the crates and a large, hairy creature leapt into view and pinned Dottie to the ground.
  “The werewolf!” Lawrence exclaimed. “I’ll go and find Charley!”
  “Help me, Lawrence!” Dottie cried, as the creature tried to sink its teeth into her throat. “I can’t hold this thing off by myself.”
  “But what can I do?” Lawrence panicked.
  “Use your ring!” Dottie cried.
Lawrence held up his power ring before him and tried to take aim at the werewolf. His hand was shaking, but the target was not a small one.
  “Fire!” Lawrence cried.
At once the werewolf was engulfed in flames. Dottie managed to scrabble out from underneath the creature and run over to Lawrence, but her face and arms had become unnaturally red from the fire. The werewolf lurched around the warehouse in extreme pain.
  “Now we can go and get Charley,” Dottie said. “Come on!”
  “I’m right with you,” Lawrence agreed readily as the two sped from the warehouse.
  “Wait,” Dottie reconsidered, grinding to a halt. “You go and find Charley by yourself, Lawrence – there’s someone else I’d like to bring in on this.”
  “Who?” Lawrence asked.
  “Who do you think?” Dottie snapped.
  “Charley won’t like it,” Lawrence warned.
  “I don’t really care!” Dottie snapped. “This situation is getting very serious indeed and we need Mona the Vampire!”

In the dark and seedy neighbourhood of Cabrini Green, Colin and Simon were startled to see a living figure of flames charging towards them at top speed.
  “What is that thing?” Simon fretted.
  “We’ll soon see,” said Colin, raising his power ring. “Water!”
A tremendous jet of water shot from Colin’s ring and doused the flames, but the creature continued to run towards the twins.
  “It’s the werewolf!” Simon exclaimed.
  “Run!” cried Colin.
The smoking werewolf – who was now inordinately angry – chased the twins through the neighbourhood and finally cornered them in a dark, dead-end alley.
  “We’re done for!” Colin wailed.
  “Maybe not,” Simon disagreed, as he was struck by a sudden thought. “Quick, grab on to me.”
Colin obligingly clung tightly to his brother, who pointed his power ring down at the ground.
  “Wind!” Simon declared, and a colossal cyclone whipped up. It carried Colin and Simon over the werewolf’s head to safety, and set them down on the street.
  “Well done, Simon,” breathed Colin. “Now, let’s find Master Zapman as quickly as we can.”

As Dottie ran up Mona’s front path, the front door opened to reveal Mona and Lily in the hall beyond. Mona had been about to say goodbye to Lily for the night, but Dottie’s appearance seemed to indicate that there might yet be more work to do.
  “Dottie!” Mona exclaimed. “What on Earth is wrong?”
  “Oh, Mona!” Dottie cried. “There’s a werewolf on the loose and it’s a harbinger of some creature and Charley says we can kill it but I don’t think we can and…”
  “Whoa, slow down,” Mona interrupted. “If you want my help for your precious Zapiteers, Dottie, then…”
  “Mona, look,” Lily said softly. “She’s hurt.”
Mona took Dottie by the arm and led her into the hall. In the light she could clearly see the red and purple burns on Dottie’s face and arms, and read the look of fear and alarm in her eyes.
  “My God, Dottie, what has Charley been doing to you?” Mona boggled. “Lily, take Dottie into the lounge while I get some antiseptic cream for these burns.”
In the living room, Mona and Lily listened intently to Dottie’s story.
  “It started last night when I first saw the werewolf,” Dottie related. “I knew something was wrong because it was the night before the full moon, and everyone knows werewolves only appear when there’s a full moon.”
  “Actually, Dottie, that’s not quite true,” Mona told her. “Werewolves actually appear for three nights every month, not just one – the night of the full moon, and the two nights either side.”
  “Oh, right,” Dottie accepted. “Well, anyway, when I used my heart ring on the werewolf, I got a kind of psychic portent. That werewolf is one of three harbingers for a very evil creature called Grendel. The other two harbingers were the vampire and the zombie. That’s why Charley and the other Zapiteers are trying to kill the werewolf – to keep this creature at bay.”
  “Hmm, I wonder what sort of creature Grendel is,” Mona mused. “I suppose Charley’s right about trying to nip this problem in the bud, but I’ve always had big problems with killing werewolves.”
  “Why is that?” Dottie queried. “They’re evil, aren’t they?”
  “Not really,” Mona replied. “Most of the time, that werewolf is a human being.”
  “Ooh, I never thought of it like that,” Dottie frowned. “I wish Lawrence hadn’t set it on fire now.”
  “That won’t kill it,” said Mona. “Only silver can do that.”
  “I know,” said Dottie. “Charley has some silver bullets with him.”
  “Do you want to try and stop him, Mona?” Lily asked. “If this werewolf stays alive, there might be something even worse for us to deal with on its way.”
  “I’m going to talk to Charley about this,” Mona decided. “Dottie, you can stay here and…”
  “No, I’m coming too!” Dottie insisted. “I’m not backing out of this now.”
  “Well, all right,” Mona agreed. “Come on, then; let’s go and sort this mess out.”

Not far from Mona’s house, Charley had been located by Lawrence, Colin and Simon. They were all gabbling at him about the werewolf.
  “Please, one at a time!” Charley cried desperately. “Lawrence, what did you see?”
  “The werewolf was in an abandoned warehouse,” Lawrence related. “I set it on fire with my ring and then I ran to find you.”
  “Where’s Dottie?” Charley thought to ask. “Is she okay?”
  “Yes, she escaped as well,” Lawrence said cautiously. “I’m not sure where she ran off to; she was… in a bit of a panic, I think.”
  “Master Zapman, we saw the flaming werewolf at Cabrini Green,” Colin ventured. “I put out the flames that engulfed it with my magic ring.”
  “The creature was in a poor state,” Simon added. “Perhaps it is still in the neighbourhood, injured and vulnerable.”
  “I certainly hope so,” Charley said. “It’ll make our job a lot easier. We’ll go and investigate Cabrini Green, but I don’t think we should just blunder around the dark alleyways unprepared.”
  “What do you suggest we do then, Charley?” asked Lawrence.
  “I’d like to send Captain Planet ahead as a scout,” said Charley.
  “Oh, not Captain Planet,” Colin groaned. “He makes us do foul and mucky tasks.”
  “Besides, Master Zapman, we cannot call him without all five rings, and Dottie is not here,” Simon pointed out. “I think we should press on to Cabrini Green.”
Before Charley could make a decision about this, a shout from the dark street up ahead caught his attention. His eyes widened in surprise and anger as he saw Mona, Lily and Dottie running towards them.
  “Charley!” Mona called. “A little bird tells me you could do with some help.”
  “I don’t need help with anything,” Charley pouted, as the three girls drew up to him. “There is something of a werewolf situation but I’ve got it in hand.”
  “Oh yeah?” Mona frowned. “That’s not what my barbecued cousin tells me.”
  “I’m sorry, Charley,” Dottie squeaked guiltily. “But we need Mona to deal with this.”
  “Charley, this is clearly something very major,” Lily said calmly. “We should all work together on it.”
  “No we shouldn’t!” Charley fumed. “I’m sending Captain Planet in to find that werewolf, and then I’m going to shoot it dead, and that will be an end to the matter! Let our powers combine. Earth!”
  “Fire!” cried Lawrence.
  “Wind!” cried Simon.
  “Water!” cried Colin.
  “Heart!” added Dottie.
  “Go Planet!” they all yelled.
There was an explosion of light and Captain Planet was amongst them once again.
  “By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!” he declared. “Ah, Kwame, there you are. What eco-mission are we undertaking today?”
  “I’ve told you before, my name is Zapman!” Charley yelled. “And we’re not doing any more eco-missions, okay? You said you’d help us fight evil as well but you haven’t so far!”
  “Oh, I’m sorry, Zapman,” Captain Planet apologised. “I just think that saving the Earth is so important.”
  “So do I,” Charley assured him. “And part of that is ridding the planet of supernatural evil.”
  “All right, I’ll do as you command,” Captain Planet agreed. “What are your instructions, Zapman?”
  “There’s a werewolf on the loose at Cabrini Green,” Charley told him. “You find it for me and then I’ll shoot it in the head, okay?”
  “Sounds like a good plan!” Captain Planet declared. “Follow me, Zapiteers!”
The superhero shot into the air, and Charley and the Zapiteers began to run along underneath him.
  “You’re not going to leave Charley to this, are you?” Lily asked Mona with a small smile.
  “Certainly not!” Mona told her. “He’d only cock it up. After them, Princess Giant!”
Mona and Lily ran off after the Zapiteers.

It didn’t take Captain Planet long to locate the werewolf. It was snuffling around one of the back alleys, feeling very sorry for itself.
  “Over here, Zapiteers!” Captain Planet called. “I’ve found it.”
Charley and the Zapiteers rushed into the alleyway, followed by Mona and Lily. They could see a dark shape shuffling around at the end. Lawrence held up his fist.
  “Fire!” he declared, and a glowing fireball formed around his ring. It lit up the whole alleyway, showing up the war-weary werewolf at the end.
  “Well done, Lawrence,” Charley smiled. “Now, he’s mine.”
  “Be careful, Charley,” Mona warned. “The werewolf is a very dangerous creature and…”
  “He looks like all the fight’s gone out of him,” Charley interrupted confidently. “This won’t take me long, Mona, and then we’ll see who’s this town’s top ghostbuster!”
Charley drew his revolver and marched up to the werewolf. The creature was not as badly hurt as it was pretending to be, however. It jumped up and grabbed Charley by the throat with one hand, sending his gun crashing to the ground with the other.
  “Master Zapman!” yelled Colin and Simon in alarm.
  “Ooh, Charley!” Dottie squealed.
  “Mona, you have to help him!” Lily exclaimed.
  “He doesn’t need my help,” Mona said obstinately. “You heard what he said.”
  “Don’t be silly, Mona,” Lily scolded. “If you don’t help Charley now then that monster will kill him!”
Mona knew that Lily was right. Putting on her fiercest vampire countenance, she rushed up behind the werewolf and grappled him to the ground. Charley fell from the creature’s grasp.
  “I told you I could handle this,” Charley growled.
  “You’ll never get to be this town’s top ghostbuster before you become a ghost yourself!” Mona snarled back.
Mona slammed the werewolf against the alley wall, dazing it. She then hesitated.
  “Kill it, Mona!” Lily encouraged her.
  “It’s still a person under there,” Mona wavered.
Charley, having recovered his gun, placed himself again between Mona and the werewolf, and once again he made a grave mistake. The werewolf threw Charley aside with unbelievable speed and then lunged for Mona, sinking its fangs into her left thigh.
  “Ouch!” Mona cried shrilly. “Charley, you idiot!”
  “But you can’t kill it without my silver bullets!” Charley protested.
Mona sighed and grabbed the gun from Charley’s grasp. She shot the werewolf through the heart and the limp body of a black teenager fell to the floor. Mona lifted up her skirt and looked at her left leg. The wound had already healed, but some white scar tissue still remained where the werewolf’s teeth had penetrated.
  “If you get bitten by a werewolf…” Lily began, but she could not finish.
  “I know,” Mona gulped. “But I can’t be a vampire and a werewolf, can I? Well, anyway, the three harbingers are dead - if Grendel’s going to rise, it’s not going to be in this neck of the woods.”
  “But what about you, Mona?” Lily fretted. “That bite…”
  “Well,” sighed Mona, “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow night, won’t we?”