Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I in any way associated with Power Rangers or High School Musical.

AN: The idea for this story comes from Catt001's fantastic music video (link in my profile) and I thank her for letting me use her idea.

AN2: For a good while here it's going to be mostly HSM. There are references to PR but I think (at least for the moment) it's enough explanation that you can understand what's up without having watched the show obsessively for the past 17 years. PR will eventually come to the forefront, but HSM characters will always be the focus. To those PR fans shaking their heads in fear: think of this as an original team story ... except not. Also, the specific incarnations this story deals with are MF and OO. I'm not saying the others won't be mentioned or come up, but don't expect Tommy to go racing across the screen at any point.

AN3: I've made a Guide to PR for HSM fans who need/want to know who these random people are. You don't need it for a few chapters though and the author's notes clearly tell you when it's important. The link to the guide is in my profile.

Now that that's all out of the way. Enjoy!

Men and Monsters

Chapter 1

Ryan Evans marched down the hall, ignoring the confused glances from his fellow students, and threw open the music room doors.

"What. The. Hell?" he demanded as the doors swung closed behind him.

Sharpay sat calmly on the back of the baby grand, Boi in her lap. In one hand she held a heavy book with frayed pages and a cover worn beyond recognition.

"Hm?" was her only response as she reached up to turn a page, yellowed with time.

Ryan crossed the room in quick strides, ignoring Boi's unhappy growls as he glared at his sister. "There is a werewolf in the boy's locker room," Ryan ground out.

Sharpay's eyes stopped their scanning of the page and she slowly lowered the book. "Repeat, please."

"You heard me."

Sharpay set the book beside her and lifted Boi up to her face with a smile. "Oh, you've been a bad boy, haven't you? Oh, yes you have!" She gave him a kiss on the head and Ryan snatched the book away from her.

"You know you shouldn't have him at school," he muttered. "He's dangerous. And what are you reading, anyway?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "So he turned a kid into a werewolf, so what?"

"It's not a full moon, Shar. It's bad enough that there's a werewolf running around loose --"

Sharpay lifted an eyebrow at that pronouncement and Ryan sighed.

"I locked him in. Let's just hope Troy and Chad don't need to get to their lockers anytime soon. Oh God, I hope it isn't Troy or Chad."

Sharpay frowned as she slid off the piano. "Well, I hope it's not Zeke. I don't want hairs in my crème brulée."

Ryan groaned. "Sharpay," he said slowly, "this is more important than your sweet tooth. There is an diurnal werewolf at East High and he is our responsibility."

Sharpay gave him a pitying look. "Says who, little brother?" she said with a smile and snatched her book from his hands.

Ryan ignored the dig and instead responded, "Who else is going to handle it? I don't see any other Underworld escapees running around Albuquerque." When Sharpay ignored him he added, "Unless you want to call our newly crowned cousin?"

Sharpay stiffened immediately and Boi leapt from her hands with a pained yelp. She whirled and Ryan was pleased to see her eyes glowing an angry red. "We are not calling that vampire brat."

"Then you agree, we have to deal with this." He spun on his heel and marched toward the door.

Sharpay huffed but hurried after him, quickly shouldering her bag and grabbing up Boi before easily gliding past Ryan at the door so that she was leading the way. She didn't even pause at the boy's locker room and Ryan cast a quick glance around to make sure no one had spotted her before entering himself. There was a great deal of snarling and the chain link fence that boxed in the lockers rattled heavily, but the most out of place sound by far was Sharpay's designer heel tapping the floor in annoyance.

"He's not very big," she said, letting Boi down.

The werewolf grasped the fence, panting heavily as it listened dumbly to the exchange. Its fur was a thick black and the only remainder of its former existence were the ragged blue jeans that had survived the transformation more or less intact, save for the shortened length and the tail sticking out the back. His shoulders seemed out of proportion with his legs, but were not so broad that he would have trouble fitting through doors. Saliva dripped from his muzzle onto the cement floor, creating a small puddle of thick, mucus-like liquid.

"He's a teen wolf," Ryan said dryly. "How big did you want him to be?"

"I don't know," she said, walking once past the door, the creature following her every move. "Big enough to crush Cynthia Mallory's new convertible?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Can you turn him back?"

"Do I look like a miracle worker?" Sharpay asked sharply. "There's no known case of lycanthrope being cured, Hollywood movies aside. What makes you think I could do it?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. You're the one with the demon dog for a pet." Ryan gently toed Boi away from the spit puddle. "I hoped maybe you'd know of a loophole."

"Well there isn't one." She put a finger to her chin. "I wonder what caused change during the day though. The first transformation usually isn't until the next full moon."

"That's not for another week," Ryan said, leaning close to the werewolf for a better look. It growled at him but backed up with a whine when it caught his scent.

"His instincts are good at least," Sharpay said dryly. "He knows better than to tick you off."

Ryan ignored her and asked, "Could it have been stress? I've heard of werewolves transforming to protect their loved ones."

"Those are only purebreds, not converts." She frowned. "Silver!"

"What?"

"A newly infected werewolf who comes in contact with silver would be under enough distress to spark an out of phase transform."

"Wow," Ryan said.

"What?"

"You sounded really smart right then."

"Some of us actually studied when we were in the Underworld."

Ryan shook his head. "Let's just get him home. It'll be easier to deal with him when there's less chance of being caught by anyone else."

Sharpay's mouth dropped open momentarily. "No. We are not --"

"He's our responsibility, Shar."

"Fine," Sharpay muttered. "But if she pees on the carpet it had better be in your room."

"She?" Ryan echoed.

"It's simple anatomy, Ryan."

Before Ryan could answer Sharpay lifted a hand and snapped her fingers, engulfing all four of them in a flurry of pink sparkles.

#

The staticky recording of Sharpay's voice told Kelsi to yet again leave a message only if she had scored at least a seven out of ten on Sharpay's Coolness Exam. Kelsi had scored a four but was given five extra points when she became the drama club's resident composer.

Kelsi threw her cell phone into her bag and slammed her hands on the piano keys. Where were they? Ms. Darbus had narrowed the choice of autumn musicale down to two possibilities and then handed the decision over to the drama club's president, vice president, and secretary, and Kelsi was fairly certain that if the secretary made a decision without the president's approval, the secretary would soon be mourning the loss of her eardrums.

She looked up at the two scores, side-by-side on the stand. She knew which one she liked better, though both were entertaining she preferred the more difficult one, but which would Sharpay like? She had no idea.

One of the doors at the back of the theater opened and Kelsi spun around. "Hey, Zeke," she sighed.

"Well, that's a nice welcome," he said as he walked down the aisle.

"Sorry, I was hoping you were Ryan or Sharpay."

"So she's not here?"

"Nope. We were supposed to meet to discuss the autumn musicale," she said, imitating Ms. Darbus. "But I've been waiting almost an hour and neither of them is answering their cell."

"Great," Zeke muttered, flopping onto the bench, facing the wrong way. "I wanted to see if she needed a ride home."

"Sharpay has a car," Kelsi reminded him as she gathered up the two scores to put them back in her bag.

"If she wanted help with her math homework?" Zeke tried.

"Sharpay's in calculus, you're in trig."

"If she wanted to make out in the home ec room?"

Kelsi shook her head to hide her smile. "That's unsanitary."

"So, what about you?"

Kelsi almost lost her grip on her bag. "What?" she gasped.

"Do you need a ride home?" Zeke said, laughing. "Oh man, you thought I --" He dissolved into a fit of laughter.

"Oh, stop!" Kelsi said, slapping his shoulder. She stood and hurried towards the doors. "Just for that I'm gonna make you take me to the library on the way. I need a book for my history paper. And no wasting time looking at cook books while we're there!"

"Oh, man!" Zeke said, following after her.

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