Hi guys! Guess what guys? I wrote another AU! (I really need to stop). I just wanted to wish you all a happy Halloween! (It's my favourite holiday and I'm so excited!) I know it's a bit late, but I thought I'd upload it anyway. I've been slaving over this thing for just over two weeks now and I hope you like it. (I think the characters came out a bit OOC but maybe – hopefully – I'm wrong.)

So this story kind of exploded into about 30,000 words even though it was supposed to be a short little one shot about the team. My Spitfire tendencies also crept in when I wasn't looking, so there you go.

Enjoy!

This is what happens after I watch twelve hours straight of Scooby Doo.

Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice.

Update: Okay, for some reason isn't taking any of my page breaks at all so the story may seem a bit confusing but it still makes sense. I'm really, really sorry about that. (This is actually driving me nuts.)

The history teacher's voice droned on and on, slowly and drawling his words out. Anyone watching him would be reminded of the teacher from Ferris Buller's Day Off. He moved like he talked, shuffling up and down the front of the classroom with about as much excitement as someone getting a root canal. He wore a too-tight brown bow tie, brown button down, and brown suit, all the same boring colour. The topic of his lecture was the thirteen colonies and the way of life of the people inside them (really, it wasn't interesting the first five times they learned it). Even the teacher, Mr. Ramsay, didn't seem like he wanted to be there, but was only there for the measly pay check (which he was).

Dick Grayson had long since stopped paying attention. His gaze was fixated at the front of the room but his mind was far away. His hair was slicked back with about a pound of gel. His fingers tapped rapidly and without end on his desk as he made up difficult math problems and solved them in his head in a matter of seconds. When that lost its charm, he simply applied these equations to his favourite video games, making plans that would be mathematically impossible to beat (Wally wouldn't know what hit him). All for fun, of course.

Kaldur'ahm Payton kept his head up and his eyes alert. His legs were at a practically perfect right angle under his almost-too small desk. A pencil was gripped in his tight knuckles but he wasn't taking any notes. That was all more for show than anything. His back was uncomfortably straight and his neck was stiff but he didn't dare move, in fear of falling asleep in a more comfortable position. He tried to listen, he really did. It was only polite.

Wally West's foot bounced impatiently under his desk as his eyes tracked the seconds hand on the clock above the white board. Tick...Tick... Tick...

It moved impossibly slowly.

The minute hand finally clicked and stopped. 11:33 am. There was still a whole twenty seven minutes until lunch. His head fell down onto the desk, making a loud smack. The teacher carried on without pause.

Megan Morse typed hurriedly onto her phone, her thumbs a blur. Her red hair fell lazily around her face, making a curtain that hid her phone. Not that it mattered; the teacher must've seen it a dozen times already. He didn't care. Megan continued on with her game, thumbs jumping from one side of the screen to another with practiced expertise. A beautiful little smile stretched across her face. She was winning.

Artemis Crock cradled her head in one hand, slouched so far into her chair that her knees peeked out from the front of her desk. She sighed.

She glanced out the window, at the falling leaves and freedom. She sighed again.

The teacher turned, yet again, to walk over to the board and scribble some illegible writing on the board. His marker didn't work and he very slowly looked down at it, peering at it curiously. Then, the marker spat back up the ink that had been clogged with tissue, all over his over sized glasses. No one really noticed. Artemis smirked at her childish handiwork.

In the back corner of the classroom, Conner Kent snored.

Nearly six hours later, Wally and Dick were finally on their way home. The others were all already home (Megan was baking, Conner was watching television, Kaldur was reading, and Artemis was studying – all so innocently unaware of what was to happen in the days to come.) but this particular duo had been working on a project in the library. They had lost track of time and now were both late.

"Let's cut through here. It'll be faster." Wally suggested as they walked past the graveyard. Dick took one look up at the rainclouds that dominated the sky and nodded in agreement.

"Alfred's going to have my head." Dick said under his breath as he checked his watch. They weaved between the old graves, both avoiding stepping on any places where the ground looked overly soft from the harsh storm that had nearly flooded the lower parts of the town the week before. The storm itself was one that puzzled all the meteorologists in a hundred mile radius. It had come out of nowhere in the middle of the night, with none of the usual warning signs or anything. It had rained so hard that it shattered some car windshields (luckily, no one was hurt). Then it just stopped exactly one hour after midnight. No one could come with a probable explanation for it. No one thought it was strange how the storm happened exactly five days before Halloween.

"I'm going to be grounded for a week if I don't beat the food to the table." Wally said. There was a crack of thunder and both boys paused to look over their shoulders at it. They turned back and hastened their pace slightly.

"I still don't know why it took you so long to find that book. It was right where I told you it'd be." Wally muttered with minor annoyance as the once light breeze turned into a chilly wind. It smacked at their jackets and their hair, pushing them back as they tried to move forward.

"I already told you. We wouldn't have needed the book but you were the one who didn't do your research." Dick responded in a condescending tone. They might've been annoyed with each other at the moment, but both knew the anger would soon dissolve and they would be back to laughing and making Science jokes within the hour (Dick made up one in History that he had yet to share). They had been best friends since they were ten and neither could really hold much of a grudge against the other. The fact was indisputable.

The ominous boom of thunder filled the air and the boys unconsciously hastened their pace slightly. It was getting darker by the second and Wally glanced around the graveyard a little uneasily, where the rusted gates swung audibly and the graves were crumbling away from erosion. The grass was dead and overgrown in most places; it crunched beneath their feet as they walked and the wind whipped harder than ever. There was another crack of thunder, this time much louder. It caused Dick to look over at Wally and share his somewhat grim look.

Suddenly, lightning filled the sky. It made the once black sky white and illuminated the boys' faces for a split second. It struck once, twice, three times without stopping and the boys, surprised, halted simultaneously. The lightning struck one final time, forking out and hitting two graves not fifteen feet from them. The temperature seemed to drop ten degrees.

The ground trembled violently and Wally fell back onto the shaking earth, Dick not far behind. Both felt slight pain in his palms from catching their falls, but were too busy staring wide-eyed at what was happening before them. Both graves that had been struck split in half and something climbed out with some difficulty. Dick was reminded of that game Wally had gotten him for his birthday, the one with the zombies who clawed their ways out of their graves. Whatever was climbing of the graves was doing it a great deal faster than the zombies from the game, and looked a great deal angrier.

It looked like a man and a woman, wearing old fashioned clothing and the kind of smile you see a horror movie monster wearing as he cuts out your heart. They were transparent and surrounded by a strange black light that seemed to come from nowhere, but shone on them nonetheless. It was a menacing black aura that lit up anything within a foot of them. Some kind of glowing blue liquid oozed from their graves and fingertips, covering everything around them in it. The woman looked to the man and both laughed maniacally, as if rehearsed. It would be this moment that the boys realized they were no longer standing on their graves, but floating several feet above. The goop still dripped from their fingers, hitting the graves with a horrible squishing sound.

Dick didn't move, didn't even breathe, scared they might see him. Wally had the same idea.

"It's time to serve our master," the man cackled. The ghosts suddenly shot up into the sky at amazing speeds, laughing madly all the way. The lightning and thunder stopped as suddenly as they'd come, but the clouds remained.

The two teens (who, on a side note, would prove braver than most the people in the town) both stood and bolted as fast as they could from the graveyard.

The next day, Wally ran to meet Dick at the bus stop. (He ran everyday – it was his favourite thing in the whole world. He relished in the pure freedom that came with it, as cliché as it was, he loved the feelings of the wind in his face and the hard earth beneath his feet.)

He and Dick hadn't had a chance to talk about what they saw in the graveyard, both because they were late and because there was no way they were going to stop and talk about seeing ghosts rise from the grave, when they could be very possibly lurking about anywhere. Once the boys got home, they found the power had been knocked out by the freak storm, which meant cell and internet connection was offline too, and as simple as that, the boys had no other means of communication.

Dick was already at the bus stop when his best friend arrived, as usual (Wally was always late.) "What the hell was that?" Wally didn't bother with the polite 'hello' anymore, not with Dick.

"I don't know. But I'm going to find out. You in?" Dick had spent most of his night in his library, but it only told him what he already knew. They had seen ghosts.

"Duh." Wally said as the bus pulled up in front of them. They might've been scared then, but most of the fear had worn off by now. It was replaced by a burning wonder as to what the hell happened last night.

The bus driver, a dark skinned man named Thomas, nodded at them as they boarded then shut the door with a squeak. He pulled away from the stop as Wally and Dick took one of the seats around the middle of the bus. Dick was about to continue where he left off, but was interrupted when the guy behind them, some hotshot jock (his name was Kelley, but that wasn't a very well-known fact – most people called him by his last name: Mackenzie, or Mac for short), called out to the girl in front of them, a redhead named Megan.

Megan was the most popular girl and generally considered prettiest in the entire school. She was head cheerleader, president of the drama club, a straight-a student, and was known for her all around kindness. She was everything you'd expect from the most popular girl in the school, minus any rude or mean stereotypes. She definitely did not deserve to be addressed as she was about to be.

"Hey! Hotstuff! Yeah, you with the pink skirt and the killer legs. You wanna go see a movie Friday? You can come watch me at football practice before," the cocky jock offered, complete with a sleazy grin that told everyone just how great he thought that idea was. Megan, to his surprise, shook her head gently.

"I'm sorry, but no thank you. You see...er- I have other plans that I can't cancel. Maybe another time." While said with strategic kindness, everyone knew the last part was said out of pure politeness.

The hotshot scoffed. "C'mon, baby. I know you want me. Just come Friday. I know how to show you a good time."

Again, Megan shook her head, more uncomfortable this time. Her face had turned a deep shade of ruby red. "No, thank you."

"But baby-"

"She said no." Another voice joined the exchange. Low. Firm. Annoyed. The voice belonged to a boy with jet black hair and startlingly blue eyes. He sat across the aisle from the hotshot and didn't even look at him when he spoke. His name was Conner and he was one of those strong, silent types. He occasionally sat with Wally and Dick at lunch but never talked. Usually, he spent his time alone.

"Oh yeah? What're you gonna do about it?" Kelley said, apparently not understanding that his comeback really didn't make much sense.

"Just leave her alone." Conner responded, looking over. Hotshot glared but Conner didn't even blink. The bus screeched to a stop, momentarily pausing their conversation.

A girl with incredibly long hair blonde boarded the bus. She sat in front of Conner. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and swished behind her as she walked, brushing the back of her leather jacket. She was rather pretty, but not the sweet pretty Megan was. She was a tough kind of pretty with sharp cheekbones and stormy grey eyes. Her name was Artemis Crock and she had the reputation of somewhat of a rebel. Not many people messed with her, and for good reason. Apparently, Mac didn't get the memo.

"Hey hottie." He smirked at her, Conner forgotten. Artemis glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, rolled her eyes, and returned to staring straight ahead.

Hotshot tried again. "Hey, you. I'm talking to you. Yeah you, with the nice tits."Artemis raised an eyebrow at that and turned around, eyeing him.

"Excuse me?"

"I said you have nice tits. It's a compliment."

"Yeah, a completely misogynistic one." His eyebrows met in the middle. "Because you probably don't know what that means, I'll tell you using little words. That was sexist. Sexist is gross. Like you." She spoke slowly, as if talking to a child. Mac's face scrunched up, trying to figure out how she just insulted him. Artemis rolled her eyes again and turned back to the front of the bus. Wally stifled a laugh. Hotshot glared and pushed his head into the window, not hard enough to do any serious damage but hard enough to get the message across.

"Shut up you nerd," was his brilliant threat. He turned back to Artemis, "Let's make out under the bleachers later." Hotshot was getting blunter and blunter, and this annoyed more than just Conner and Artemis this time.

Artemis wholeheartedly said, "Fuck off," at the same time Wally said, "Leave them alone, man," as Dick said, "Does that ever work?", and a boy named Kaldur said, "Now that is quite enough."

Kaldur was a tall boy with dark skin and blonde hair. He sat behind hotshot. He was pretty well-known and respected at the school, being captain of their successful swim team and class president. Despite his popularity, no one really knew much about him but no one really realized that either. He was nice and fair, and had somehow convinced the school against invoking the rule of mandatory school uniforms; in a high school student's eyes, that's what counted.

"I can take handle myself thanks," Artemis snapped at the boys.

"I was only trying to-" Wally started, annoyed.

"Save it, red." She warned, "Not a word." She directed the last bit at Mac, who had opened his mouth again. The bus was quiet for a moment or two, every onlooker waiting to see what would happen next: Mac decided to ignore Artemis's warning.

"So. Megan, how about that date?"

Then, many things happened at once. Conner stood, grabbed the jock by his shirt and punched him so hard he landed back on his butt in the bus seat. Kaldur stood immediately, ready to prevent any escalation. Unfortunately, they hit a large bump at the same moment and he fell. Wally and Dick stood together, ready to help where needed (Conner may only sit with them occasionally but he wasn't a bad guy – of course they would stick to help him in a fight). Megan gasped.

Mac recovered rather quickly and stood, but Conner was ready. He socked him across the face again, except this time he landed on none other than Artemis. She swore and stood, holding him by his collar. She punched him too. By now, hotshot's friends had joined and Conner, Wally, and Dick all were suddenly preoccupied taking care of the others. (Wally and Dick were surprisingly good fighters for being such dorks). Artemis was still hitting Mac and Kaldur had somehow inserted himself in the middle, telling everyone in a firm voice to "Stop this childishness now". Megan bounced around everyone, asking them to "Please don't fight!"Meanwhile, the bus had come to a stop at the school. Not one person fighting noticed the doors open, admitting someone inside.

"Stop this instant!" All at once, everyone froze. Artemis let go of hotshot's shirt and he fell, his nose a little bloodied. The voice belonged to Mr. Jacob Grimm, the resident vice principal at Coolsville High school. He had very large eyes and very little neck. "Morse! Crock! West! Grayson! Payton! Kent! My office! Now!" The called names followed (Artemis gave one last kick to Mac on her way out for good measure).

Mr. Grimm led them to his office, where they all took a seat. Conner sat as he did in the bus: up straight with his arms crossed, with an angry look on his face. Dick, Wally, and Kaldur all sat stiffly, nervously. Megan looked more or less terrified. Artemis, on the other hand, inclined back into her usual chair and yawned hugely, settling her feet onto the desk until Grimm snapped at her to take them off.

There was really no point in sitting because Grimm had barked everything out in less than thirty seconds, as he usually did. Then it was back to reading the Calvin and Hobbes books he thought no one knew about (Artemis had found out a few months ago and made it her personal mission to make sure everyone knew.). "Detention! One month! Every day after school for two hours!" And that was it.

The group left the office, splitting off to get to their separate classes, Artemis the only one actually looking like she didn't care. She walked down the hallway, whistling, and contemplating what exactly she would do for the next forty hours of detention she had.

It was seven hours later, after all classes had ended, and everyone had arrived in the library. They all sat at separate tables with the exception of Wally and Dick (Megan in the front with Kaldur across from her, Artemis and Conner across from one another in the middle, and Dick and Wally filling up one of the back tables.) They didn't so much as look at one another. Grimm came in a gave them a very long, very pointless lecture on why what they did was wrong and why they were wrong and other things that no one could honestly say they listened to. When he finished, he said at them, "Any questions!" Kaldur raised his hand respectfully. Obviously, Grimm hadn't expected anyone to have one and he looked both angry and surprised.

"What." He spat, still saying it at them instead of to them.

"Forgive me, sir, but there were others involved in the fight. When will they be serving their detention?"

Artemis laughed and everyone looked at her. "They won't be. We won the fight. Besides, that was the school's precious football team, and I believe they have a game coming up. Can't miss practice. Isn't that right, Grimm?"

Grimm glared at her. "As a matter of fact, Miss Crock, I took their testimonies. They all say you six started it. I'd shut your mouth now, Miss Crock, unless you want to double your detention." Artemis looked like she was about to argue but the vice principal stormed out of the library, admitting their principal's entry. Their principal was a small, nervous man who didn't like conflict. His name was Mr. McNally and he usually left the distribution of punishments to Grimm while he followed after and apologized. No one had much respect for him, but he didn't seem to mind.

He was holding a large album of some kind and smiled at all the students nervously. "Hello, children. Now what you did today was bad, very, very bad. But I'm not angry! Well, I mean I am angry. But no, I'm not..." Artemis groaned and let her head drop into her arms. Their principal continued like that for about fifteen minutes, until he finally got to his book. He held it up for them all to see. "This...this is what I like to do in my spare time, see? It's some of my coin collection. It's my hobby and I was thinking that um...it'd be helpful for you to get some hobbies for yourselves because um... it would steer you away from a life of crime and um..." That went on for another fifteen minutes, until McNally thought it'd be a good idea to leave. Silence overtook the library. Dick decided to break it.

"So we're going to be spending the next two hours every day for the next month in here. We might as well know each other's names." He paused. Wally sent him an are-you-crazy-most-of-these-people-are-higher-on-the-social-ladder-than-us kind of look but he kept going anyways. "I'm Dick. Dick Grayson. And this is Wally." Silence hung for an awkward minute or so until Kaldur cleared his throat.

"I'm Kaldur'ahm, but most call me Kaldur." Kaldur said from in front of them. Dick smiled.

"Atta boy, Kal," Dick said with enthusiasm.

"My name is Megan." Megan told them softly from across the aisle, not lifting her eyes from her table.

"Conner." Conner said bluntly. All eyes swung to Artemis, who was balancing her chair on the back legs and seemed to not be listening.

"Blondie?" Wally spoke up. Artemis glared. Maybe she was listening after all.

"Artemis. Not blondie and not Arty. Artemis." She snapped. Wally held up his hands as if to surrender.

"Conner?" Megan's soft voice called out. Conner looked up at her. "Thank you. For that. In the bus, I mean." She gave him a small smile, which he returned. "Thank you all, actually." Everyone nodded, glancing towards any earned battle wounds.

They fell back into silence before Wally broke it again. "Don't you have anything to say, Artemis?"

Artemis turned around and pretended to consider, her chin in her hand. "Nope." She faced the front again. Wally scoffed and she turned back to face him again. "Sorry did I miss something? I don't recall asking for your help, or getting it for that matter. The only person I saw actually throwing punches at the douche, besides me, was Mr. Tall Dark and Angry over here and we all know he was doing it for the princess." She muttered, "Of course, he'd do it for the pretty one." Everyone heard the last bit but pretended not to.

Artemis's anger seemed to radiate off her and Wally's embarrassment showed in his bright red ears. Silence enveloped them once again, but once again, it was interrupted quickly.

CRASH

Everyone jumped and looked back behind them. It sounded like something huge had fallen, like a piano or (more likely) a full bookcase. Artemis stood up.

"Aren't we the only ones in here?" Dick said. No one bothered answering. It was more of a rhetorical question. They had all seen the librarian and Mr. Grimm and Mr. McNally leave. The entrance was at the other side of the library. Whoever entered would have to been seen by at least one of them.

CRASH

It wasn't as loud as the last one, but loud all the same. The temperature in the library seemed to drop below zero and goose bumps rose on their skin. When they exhaled, the teens could see their breath in front of them. There was another crash.

"What is that? And why is it so cold?" Megan asked. There was another crash and she jumped. Conner stood too.

"I don't know but I'm going to find out." Artemis said, sounding more confident than she looked. She took a step away from her table but stopped when papers began to fly wildly around the library and books flew off the shelves. One hit Dick in the shoulder and another hit Kaldur in the stomach. Artemis started again towards the back, determined as ever. But, she had barely walked five steps from her table when more bookcases began to fall, knocking into each other and creating a domino effect.

Wally saw what was going to happen moments before Artemis did. He leapt from his chair and tackled Artemis around the waist, causing both of them to fly out of the way of the bookcase that threatened to crush her. The bookcase crashed directly onto the spot she had previously been standing on. Wally landed on top of Artemis, their faces inches apart. His hands were braced on the floor to avoid crushing her and hers had somehow found his shoulders. Before either could comment, a high pitched voice spoke.

It was scratchy, like nails on a chalkboard, and sent cold fingers down even the usually calm Kaldur's back. "Hello, children." It came from the back of the library where the crashing had originated. "You've all been very naughty." The ghostly figure from the graveyard, the female, floated out from behind the still standing bookcases. She smiled a sinister smile. It was easier to see her in the fluorescent lights of the library. She wore a dress with skirts that were thicker than an encyclopedia and her gray hair was tied up in a prim bun. She was still surrounded by that strange black aura.

"What the hell is that?" Artemis asked, still beneath Wally. He hurriedly rolled off her and offered her a hand up, which she ignored in favour of standing on her own. No one's eyes every left the ghost.

"Run!" Dick shouted it, recognizing the ghost from the day before. Everyone followed his instructions without hesitation. Dick led them out; followed by Megan, Conner, Kaldur, and Wally and Artemis. The ghost cackled and followed, flying like Superman might. The only difference was that Superman wasn't usually trying to kill the somewhat innocent teenagers – not in the comics, anyway.

Their feet pounded against the white tile as they ran. They made it to the end of the hallway, about to turn down another, when a man appeared out of the wall. He emerged from between Conner and Kaldur, cutting Megan, Dick, and Conner and Artemis, Wally, and Kaldur off from one another. He smiled too, "Naughty children!" He screeched gleefully.

"Go!" Kaldur yelled and the three reluctantly carried on, leaving the other three behind. "This way!" He directed them up the stairs, into the English hallway. Wally slammed any doors that passed through behind them, apparently forgetting that the ghosts could walk through walls.

The other three ran for the doors, led by Dick. He threw himself into it, but it didn't budge. Conner did the same thing, with the same result. The three turned to see the woman at the end of the hall, smiling still.

The trio swung into the Chemistry lab, running through to the exit on the other side, the ghost right behind them.

"Iron!" Dick shouted randomly.

"What?!" Megan responded.

"I read last night that ghosts are affected by iron! We need iron!"

Conner checked over his shoulder at the ghost's progress. "This way! There's some in the wood shop class!"They skidded into the shop room, where Conner found exactly what he had been looking for. He grabbed the fire stoker and held it like a bat. "Get behind me." He told both of them. They did, and the ghost floated into the classroom a moment later, smiling. Conner swung the stoker and it ran right through the ghost. But instead of it just remaining still, it began to bounce all over the room, hitting each surface hard. They didn't wait to see what happened next. They left as quickly as they could and bolted down the hall.

Upstairs, the others were running, the ghost behind them somewhere. They had lost it when they went up the stairs, but no one was counting themselves lucky just yet. The three skidded down and out of the English hallway, only to find one end gated and chained. All three grabbed it and shook it, but it didn't budge. Artemis kicked it.

"You children deserve your punishment." It had found them. The male ghost stood not ten feet from them. He was holding what looked like a carving knife. He took a step towards them.

"Where the hell did he get that?!" Wally asked.

"I don't suppose either of you have any ideas?" Kaldur asked.

Artemis glanced around the hall out of the corner of her eye. She turned suddenly, and brought her foot up to kick in the glass of a fire extinguisher case. Even the ghost looked a bit startled. She used her elbow to knock the rest of the shards out of place and grabbed the fire extinguisher, pulling it out with her.

"What are you doing?!" Wally asked.

"More than you are. Get ready to run." Artemis lifted the fire extinguisher and the ghost began to laugh.

"You think that will work, little girl? Naughty, naughty girl." The ghost cackled.

"Oh, I sure hope so." She squeezed the trigger and white foam blasted out, shooting the ghost. It looked surprised, then began to fly back as if not on his own accord. She took a few steps forward, not letting up.

"Go, go, go!" She yelled at the boys. They did as they were told and went, Artemis shooting and running at the same time, ran behind them. They took the steps down two at a time and ran into the gym.

The other three were still running from their own furious ghost. She had recovered quicker than they'd hoped and was back on their tail. "C'mon!" Conner said, grabbing Megan's hand and yanking her behind him and into the gym, Dick on their heels. The gym was set up for a pep rally, complete with bleachers and chairs lined up in neat rows and a large stage that dominated one half of the gym.

The teens skidded to a stop, meeting in the middle. Both groups eyed the other's strange weapons (Conner still held his iron stoker and Artemis still held her fire extinguisher.) The lights began to flicker and the chairs on the ends began to fly up and smash into the walls.

"Here they come. At the ready, everyone." Kaldur commanded. The lights turned off, leaving them in complete darkness. A spotlight turned on, shining on a figure in a black cloak. He wore a plain white mask that frowned at them. He floated at least ten feet above them, over the stage. The ghosts floated in, stopping to float just beneath him.

"I am The Shadow and I warn you now, leave this place. Never return." It spoke with a large, booming voice but sounded almost nervous. Afraid. Artemis took a note of that. She took all the courage she had and stepped forward.

"What're you gonna do if we don't?" Everyone else seemed to be surprised she had spoken at all.

"You...You will deal with my ghosts!" He sounded less nervous now, gaining confidence from the threats on either side.

"Already did. Wasn't too difficult." Artemis snapped. She sounded a lot more confident than she felt. If she was honest, she would've said she was scared out of her wits, like the others. But Artemis, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) was not a very honest person. She squeezed the trigger on the fire extinguisher. The ghosts shot away to avoid it, but The Shadow got hit a little on his cloak.

Artemis had bought them the time they needed, and the group ran once again, led now by Kaldur. The fire extinguisher was empty now, but Artemis held onto it anyways (an empty threat is better than no threat at all – as long as they didn't know it was empty.)

This time, Kaldur led them straight to the office. The teens piled in, shutting the door behind them then slamming open Mr. Grimm's door. Mr. Grimm, startled, accidentally knocked over his coffee as he jumped in his chair then shot up to his feet. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" He boomed, his face becoming scarlet with anger. It would've been more intimidating if he didn't have coffee on his crotch.

McNally wandered in from his office. "What's happening?" He asked. Then he saw the look on Grimm's face and he bolted back out. Everyone began talking at once.

Grimm looked even angrier. "STOP! PAYTON! EXPLAIN!"

Everyone quieted. Kaldur stepped forward. "Sir, this may sound strange but we have been...chased."

"And by who?"

"Whom." Dick corrected.

"I think the more appropriate word would be what." Wally told him.

"PAYTON!"

"Sir, I am afraid I am not aware to whom it was but I do know what it was."

Mr. Grimm glared, his annoyance evident. "What was it then?!"

Kaldur cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly. "Well...sir...I believe it was... a pair of ghosts." He winced at how it sounded out loud.

Surprisingly, Mr. Grimm did not lose it and start screaming. Not completely, anyways. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Back to the library. Now. Anymore disturbances and your detentions will be doubled. Understand?" Everyone began to argue but he cut them all off. "NOW!" He seemed to notice something. "Ms. Crock, why are you holding a fire extinguisher?"

They didn't see the ghosts anywhere on their way back to the library. They seemed to have just disappeared. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the mess they left behind. The library looked even worse than they had left it. All of the books were scattered everywhere, not a single one was still on the shelf. The tables were broken and someone had written on the wall in scratched black letters. "BOW TO THE SHADOW", it read.

None of the students had ever seen Mr. Grimm look so angry. He didn't yell and he didn't scream. He just stood there, his face gradually becoming redder and redder, his neck becoming more and more purple. His voice was quiet, "Suspended. All of you. A month. Clean this mess. Now." He picked up the phone off the wall (something that was miraculously still in place) and dialed one of the three number codes of the school. He said something to someone on the other line then hung up. "The janitor is on his way." He said quietly, his voice shaking slightly from anger. He turned on his heel and walked towards the doors, then back, snatched the fire extinguisher from Artemis, and left. Everyone simultaneously let out a breath.

"I know this is kinda off topic, but what the hell just happened?" Artemis said.

"I have no idea." Megan answered.

"We were chased by ghosts, that's what." Wally said.

"And we were suspended for it," Conner said as he picked up a few books and placed them back in the shelves.

"We saw the ghosts last night too. Wally and I," Dick said. All eyes snapped to look at him. "We did. Right, Wally?" Wally nodded and Dick continued, "We cut through the graveyard last night. Some kind of freak storm rolled in, lightning hit the grave and they came out of them." He paused and rubbed the back of his neck. "It sounds even crazier out loud."

"After what happened just now, I'd believe pretty much believe anything." Megan told Dick gently, placing a hand on his arm.

The door opened and everyone went quiet. The janitor, Mr. Jack Neil, walked in. The man had a round stomach and a thick mustache. He looked around the library.

"Damn miscreants." He swore. He shoved the cart he had brought that was full of cleaning supplies at Dick, who caught it, then stalked out of the library, muttering swears as he went. Only when the door shut completely did they continue.

"Do you remember which graves they were?" Artemis asked as she swept with a broom she had taken off the cart.

"They're split in two, they should be easy enough to find. Why?" Wally answered.

"Because I want to check it out." she stopped sweeping for a moment. She seemed to consider something then spoke again, "This might sound dumb, but I've always had a thing for mysteries. And I'm not just gonna let this one pass me by."

"I've always loved mysteries too." Megan told her with a smile.

"Yeah, me too," Dick said while Wally nodded in agreement.

"I must admit, I've always been fascinated by them. I spend most of my free time reading mystery novels." Kaldur added.

Conner nodded stiffly. "Me too."

"Wait...we all like mysteries? Doesn't anyone think that's strange?" Megan said.

Artemis grinned, "Maybe it's fate." Wally scoffed.

"There's no such thing as fate. There's no scientific evidence."

Artemis looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. "Wow, you must be fun at parties. Bet you didn't even believe in magic when you were a kid."

"Oh no, not the magic." Dick muttered.

"As a matter of fact, I didn't. " Wally said. Artemis rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, Kid Buzzkill."

"Kid Buzzkill?" Wally asked curiously.

"Yeah. Like how everyone on the track team calls you Kid Flash? Kid Buzzkill." Artemis resumed sweeping. "Let's just clean this up so we can go home." Everyone muttered their agreement and got to work.

Five hours later, they managed to finally clean the library to Grimm's standards. It took them twenty minutes alone to scrub the words written on the wall so they were somewhat faded, which Grimm wasn't happy about. He escorted them out and reminded them again of their suspensions, McNally behind him, wringing his hands. Grimm slammed the door behind them, walking back down the halls of the school with McNally close behind.

"What do you think they do for that long in the school?" Artemis asked curiously as she watched them depart.

"I'm just glad he didn't see the gym." Megan said.

"Or the English hallway." Wally said. Conner, Megan, and Dick looked at him, but he waved them off.

"If we truly are going to try to solve this mystery, I say we meet tomorrow. As long as we are not all grounded, that is." Kaldur proposed.

"Don't worry about being grounded. I hacked the school's system and all outgoing messages to our parents. According to the message, we all volunteered to stay help the teachers after school today for some charity drive." Dick told them with a smile. Everyone returned his smile, some looking somewhat concerned.

"That's what you were doing when you disappeared?" Megan asked. Dick nodded. He and Wally did some kind of complicated handshake after Artemis and Conner clapped him on the shoulders.

"Where do you want to meet?" Kaldur asked, sticking his hands and his swim team jacket pockets.

"How about the park? By that huge red slide? It'll be deserted in the middle of a school day. No one will see us." Megan offered.

"Sounds good, Megalicious." Wally said, smirking at her. Megan looked confused. Conner glared. Artemis rolled her eyes.

"So the park tomorrow? At ten?" Dick asked, changing the subject. Everyone muttered their agreement and good byes then split up, heading back home.

Incidentally, that meant that they split off into pairs, each having someone else in the group who lived in their neighbourhood. Wally and Dick, Megan and Conner, and Kaldur and Artemis were the pairs that walked together. No one said it out loud, but they were all secretly grateful for the company. It was already dark outside and after being attacked by those ghosts, they were all understandably a little against the idea of walking alone in the dark.

The wind whistled past Wally and Dick as they walked; their breath was only just visible in front of them. Leaves rustled and they passed and crunched when they were stepped on. Their path was illuminated by old orange street lamps, some that flickered and winked at them eerily. The black outlines of the Halloween decorations that adorned the houses across the street didn't help.

They had taken the long way home, all the way around the graveyard. By unspoken agreement, they went around some houses too so they wouldn't have to be anywhere near that place. Who knew if those homicidal ghosts were rendez vous-ing there?

Wally and Dick ended up passing in front of the old museum, its festive red and orange lights casting strange shadows as they passed. The building was made of dark marble, with large pillars that made it look like it belonged in Greece, not the little town of Coolsville. Its stone steps were cracked and worn from age and its pillars cast long, thick shadows onto the sidewalk. The boys elected to ignore the old building in favour of talking about their new companions.

"What are you talking about, Dick? Megan is totally my type. She's pretty and sweet. What more could a guy ask for?" Wally argued, pushing his backpack strap up his shoulder a little more.

"She's out of your league. You know, I think Artemis is more your type. You're both argumentative, stubborn..."

"Ew! Dick!" He shoved his friend in the shoulder but Dick just laughed.

"Too bad she's out of your league too."Wally sulked while Dick laughed. He went back to teasing Wally, both too distracted to notice the gate of the tall iron fence that surrounded the museum was open, or the quiet shuffling that followed them.

Conner and Megan had decided to cut through some woods on their way home. It'd take them only fifteen minutes, as opposed to walking all the way around and taking forty. It was a no brainer, really. At first, they walked in silence. That was until Megan managed to trip about five minutes in.

She had been too busy trying to think of a good conversation topic that she hadn't noticed the large root protruding from the ground. Her flat clad foot hit it, and down she went. She closed her eyes and was braced for the fall but ended up hitting something much softer. And warmer. She opened her eyes.

Conner had managed to catch her somehow and, while it was hard to tell in the dim light, Megan would've sworn he was blushing furiously. He helped her to her feet.

"Thanks." She gave him her warmest smile.

Conner nodded and looked at his shoes, "It's no big deal." He began to walk again. Megan followed, catching up with a bit of difficulty due to his longer strides.

"So, Conner. You just moved here right?" Conner looked over at her, looking somewhat surprised that Megan Morse knew that. He nodded. Megan nodded at him and smiled, "Me too. My parents are going travelling for the year and I'm staying with my Uncle Jon. They waited until senior year so it wouldn't be so hard for me. You know, to switch schools and switch back. My older siblings are all in university by now. I'm the youngest." Conner nodded without a word, so Megan took that as a sign to keep talking. "Everyone is so nice here. I mean, there are a few exceptions like that boy on the bus this morning. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice person; maybe he just doesn't understand how to talk to girls. Poor boy." Megan felt genuine pity for him and Conner could tell. He wondered how she could, after he had been so rude to her. She bit her lip. "Thank you. Again. For this morning, I mean. It was really sweet of you."

Conner looked over at her and offered her a rare smile, which she returned happily. "You're welcome."

Megan was delighted to have gotten him to talk, and wasn't about to let him go back into silence so easily. "So where'd you move from?"

"Smallville. I moved here with my dad and his girlfriend, Lois."

"Really? I've heard of Smallville. It's supposed to be a very nice city..." The full moon hung heavy above them as Megan chatted on. Megan was happy to fill the silence and Conner was happy to listen. So happy, in fact, that neither heard the twigs snapping as something stalked them from behind.

Kaldur and Artemis came from completely different social groups. He came from a large group of very smart, very popular people that he had earned from becoming class president and swim captain and all those other stereotypical popular crowd things. He had transferred on some school exchange program from some Mediterranean country that no one had really heard of before. She came from more of a lone wolf type thing. Sure, she had a few people she would hang around with, but none of them would she really consider as friends. She did all the stereotypical things a class rebel would do: pull pranks, sass teachers. The only thing that conflicted with her image was her devotion to her school work (something that she worked hard at for her mother – not that she would admit it).

Artemis and Kaldur had talked a few times before and had been paired up by the teacher for a History project once, so they weren't complete strangers, but they were pretty much as close as you could get without being it.

"Some party, huh?" Artemis broke the silence that had enveloped them. Kaldur smiled.

"I am not sure I would call that a party." They both laughed quietly. They walked a little further in a now not-so-awkward silence, coming past Old Edwards Mansion. They both looked over at it as they passed. It was exactly something you'd find in a horror movie: a completely black, abandoned, castle-like mansion that sat on top of a huge hill with a huge iron poled gate surrounding it. It was truly a horror director's dream.

"That place sure is creepy." Artemis said. Kaldur nodded.

"Is it not supposed to be deserted?"

"Yeah, why?"

"There is a light on inside. See? There?"

Artemis waved it off with a shrug and a, "It's probably just a bunch of kids who thought it'd be funny to sneak into the abandoned mansion."

Both were too preoccupied looking at the huge building on top of the hill to notice the man walking swiftly behind them, his cloak pulled up over his face.

Wally tripped.

Wally wasn't a normal tripper; he was a dramatic tripper. That meant he wasn't one to simple fall and say 'ow'. No, when he fell he went all out. Complete with the waving arms, the comedic expression, and the loud exclamation of "OH SHIT!"

Dick looked back at his friend and did the thing that any best friend of six years would do. He laughed.

Wally scowled at him and got to his knee to tie the shoelace he had tripped over. "Dude, hold up." He said without looking up.

"Wally? I did." Wally looked up to see Dick looking down at him curiously. Wally scrunched his eyebrows together.

"Then what's-" he finished tying his shoe and looked behind him, where the sound of shuffling footsteps were coming from. Dick followed his gaze. It seemed the sound was coming from just beyond the last streetlamp. They'd be able to see whoever it was if he kept walking towards them. Wally stood up, his lace now tied. The duo watched curiously, until the figure stepped into the light. It was covered completely in dirty once-were-white-now-were-yellow bandages, a few small pieces falling away from its face to reveal sunken eyes and skin like parchment. It limped and its shoulders were uneven, one held awkwardly above the other. One of its arms was outstretched, its fingers curled and uncurled as if to grab them (even though they were still about ten feet away).

"Is that a-" Wally began. The thing let out a loud groaning noise, cutting him off. It sounded angry.

"Wally?"

"Yeah, Dick?"

"Say, hypothetically, a mummy, a real, live mummy, is walking towards you. What do you do?"

"Hit it with something."

"And if you have nothing to hit it with?"

"Run like hell." The mummy let out another angry groan.

"Why don't we do that?" The two teenage boys turned on their heels and ran like hell. They bolted down the street, the mummy picking up the pace slightly. Dick almost had trouble keeping up with his friend (Wally was captain of the track team) but Wally purposely didn't go at full speed so as not to lose his best friend. The mummy picked up the pace slightly, moving at an awkward jog. They lost the mummy rather quickly, mostly due to the fact that it couldn't go faster than their jog (the movies really weren't very accurate – it was easy to outrun it). Both boys raced to Wally's house (it was closest) and slammed the door shut behind them, bolting and chaining it before barricading it and checking every other door and window in the house. Neither considered how they would explain this all to Mr. and Mrs. West, but neither could really bring themselves to care.

"Two ghosts and a mummy. What the hell is next?! A werewolf?!" Wally exclaimed. He didn't know how right he was.

At the same moment Wally decided to bend down and tie his shoe, Megan stopped talking. It was only for a moment to catch her breath, but it was all they needed. A loud crack rang out from behind them, and the teens turned around. There was nothing there. The teens exchanged a look. They hastened their pace to a jog and began to move quickly down the trail in the woods. The exit of the forest wasn't far, maybe twenty feet ahead.

A wolf howled. Conner grabbed Megan's hand and pulled her after him as they both broke into a sprint. They had to stop however, when a large, hairy creature stepped out of the trees and blocked their path. It growled at them.

"Megan." Conner spoke quietly. "Run."

"I'm not leaving you." Megan told him equally as quiet, her voice stubbornly brave. It moved towards them, into a patch of moonlight, and they saw what it truly was.

It was huge, twice as tall as Conner, with dark brown fur and a long muzzle with a fat wet nose. Its eyes were pure black and its fangs were longer than the bottom of its jaw. It leaned down and over them then growled. Conner did the first thing he thought of. He barrelled into it as hard as he could, taking it by surprise and knocking it down. But the werewolf recovered quickly and picked him up, throwing him into a tree.

"Hey!" Conner looked up in time to see Megan swing a large branch at the creature, catching it in the head. It crumpled to the ground. Megan dropped the extremely heavy branch she had found and ran over to help Conner up.

"Are you okay?" She asked gently. Conner nodded.

"Let's get out of here before it wakes up." He grabbed her hand and his bag, and then they both sprinted out of the forest. By the time the wolf came to, the teens were long gone; both behind locked and bolted doors, and trying in vain to forget what had happened in order to get some sleep.

Megan crawled into her bed and brought the covers over her head. A wolf howled in the distance and she shivered.

As Wally bent to tie his shoe and Megan stopped talking, Kaldur felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He got that distinct feeling of being watched and turned to see a man, not five feet from himself. He wore black pants, dress shoes, and held some kind of black cape over his face just beneath his eyes. Kaldur touched Artemis's arm lightly and she turned, freezing when she saw the man.

"Mina, my love. At long last I have found you again." His voice was heavily accented, something that neither teen could place but knew from somewhere.

"Excuse me?" Snapped Artemis, crossing her arms.

"Why, Mina, my love! It is I!" He dropped the cloak, smiling to reveal pearly white pointed teeth. "Count Dracula."

Artemis's arms dropped, her defiant look melted off her face. Both teens took a stunned step back. "Kaldur?"

"Yes?"

"You think he's some lunatic or legitimate?"

"I say we run in either case."

"Good idea." Kaldur and Artemis simultaneously turned and bolted, running as fast as they could. Dracula followed close behind, his cape flying out behind him wildly. Every so often, he'd call out breathlessly to Artemis, calling her "Mina" and twice he addressed Kaldur as "Dr. Seward".

They ran past some rusted gray gates, stopping to catch their breath in front of an old church.

"I think we lost it." Artemis doubled over.

Kaldur panted. "Where did he go? He was right behind me."

Artemis straightened again, and turned to look at the church. She froze. "Uh...Kaldur?"

Kaldur turned to see what she was looking at. It was taller than both of them combined and had little chips in paint but otherwise, it was completely intact as it stood protectively over the teens, a tall white guardian. The cross before them stood stark and strong.

It was ten thirty the next day and Wally was the last to arrive, as usual. Dick had seated himself on top of the huge slide, Megan sat at the bottom, and everyone else stood around it.

The playground had a peculiarly eerie air to it that sent icy fingers down Wally's back. The swings creaked as they rocked quietly in the Autumn breeze and leaves almost completely covered the sand box. The equipment looked skeletal without children on them, all the life from them was gone. Beyond the sandbox, where the equipment stood, was a long field that surrounded it on all sides. Trees blocked off most of the world, and left the teens cut off from it.

Wally skidded up to the group just as Kaldur finishing recounting his tale of being chased by a vampire with Artemis. Conner had already told them about the werewolf and Dick about the mummy.

"What'd I miss?" Wally asked, his breathing only slightly laboured.

"We weren't the only ones chased last night. Megan and Conner found themselves a werewolf, which Megan proceeded to knock out with a stick." Artemis bumped fists with an uncertain looking Megan. "Then Artemis and Kaldur were chased by a vampire."

"Wait. So we all met two ghosts, a mummy, a werewolf, and a vampire? All in one day?" He asked incredulously.

"All on Halloween eve, too." Artemis added. "Someoneelse has to find that weird too."

"I think we should go back to where we saw the monsters. You know, like they do in the mystery books. We should look for clues." Megan said, shifting from foot to foot, as if she doesn't like the prospect of going back to where she was attacked by a werewolf. Dick nodded.

"I think we should too. Let's go to the woods first. It's closest." Everyone nodded their agreement, beginning to walk.

"Don't you guys think it was strange? How we were the ones to see the ghosts then we were the ones to be chased by monsters?" Conner blurted. Everyone turned around and looked at him curiously.

"I am sorry, but I do not think I understand." Kaldur said.

Conner crossed his arms. "What if this wasn't chance? What if we were chosen?"

"What do you mean, Conner?" Megan asked.

"What if we're meant to be heroes?" Everyone stopped, letting themselves absorb his words. Finally, Dick spoke up.

"Well, I don't know about you, but if I'm going to be a hero, I'm going to do it right." He held out his hand in a fist, extending it in front of him. They teens looked from his hand to his grin, Megan stepped forward and put her hand on top of his,

"Together." She told him with a smile. Wally put his hand on top of hers, grinning. Kaldur joined them, then Conner with a sigh. Finally, only Artemis remained, looking at the group uncertainly.

She shook her head. "I'm the last pers-" She began to say, but was cut off by Wally.

"Just come on, blondie." Artemis bit her lip uncertainly, then let it slide through her teeth, as if giving up. She sighed.

Artemis walked forward and put her hand on top. "For the reckless and the brave, I guess."

They went to the woods first, with it being closest. Conner and Megan led them to the spot they were attacked. The ground was barren from leaves and the dirt was covered in slide marks from the scuffle between the werewolf and Conner. Some of the roots were ripped clean out of the ground. The air of the forest was cold and snapped at any uncovered skin and the bitter breeze made their eyes water. The trees seemed to crowd in on them, their bare branches reaching out like skeletal fingers. But there were other things too, like long scratch marks on the trees and little tufts of hair everywhere.

"That's the stick I used to hit the werewolf with." Megan pointed to a large branch, snapped clean off near the top, with about half a foot hanging by a few threads. The broken part had some fur and dried blood on the end, where it had made contact with the werewolf's head.

"Holy crow, Megan." Wally said, picking the branch up and feeling its weight as he examined the broken part. Megan smiled innocently.

"I've played baseball since I was nine."

Dick slipped his backpack off his shoulders and put it on the ground, kneeling behind it. He unzipped the black bag and began to set out little bags and tongs and other various tools on the ground beside it.

"Let's gather some stuff. Here, someone take pictures too. We can look at them later, and I can do some tests on the samples in my dad's lab-"

"Your dad has a whole lab?" Artemis interrupted disbelievingly.

"Yeah, it's in the basement," he said dismissively. "Just grab some stuff and put it inside these little containers, then put the containers in these little bags. Seal the bags and put them in the backpack to avoid cross contamination." He finished explaining and everyone moved forward to collect their equipment. Kaldur took the camera and began snapping pictures of the claw marks and fur tufts before the others collected them.

Artemis gathered some containers then walked up to a tree and placed her fingers in each dent, dragging it downwards with the markings.

Dick approached her. "Animals do that to mark their territory."

Artemis pulled her hand away from it slowly, staring at it closely. "Creepy."

"Dick?" Megan said from across the trail. "Look at this."

He walked towards her, "What is it?" Megan pointed to a long, thin trail of a silvery blue liquid. Dick took a cotton swab from his kit and carefully swabbed some up, placing it in a vile. It was thick and heavier than it should've been for such a small volume of it.

"There's some over here too." Conner said. Kaldur walked forward before Dick and took a few shots at different angles, then moved so Dick could collect it.

"I just want to know where that...thing came from." Megan said as she scanned the edge of the trail.

"I think know where." Artemis said. Everyone looked at her. She had pushed aside a heavily leafed branch that was barely hanging by a thread of wood to reveal a trail of snapped twigs and disturbed leaves.

Kaldur walked forwards, looking down the trail. "Dick, Artemis. We will all go down that path and see if we find anything. Wally, Conner, Megan, stay here and gather more clues. We will meet back here in ten minutes."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't get me wrong, Kaldur, but who put you in charge?" Artemis asked, interrupting him. Everyone seemed to come to the same conclusion and looked to him questioningly.

"Well, I suppose I assumed-" Kaldur stuttered out.

"No, pres, I think you make a great leader. Just remember: this is a democracy, not a dictatorship." She pointed an accusing finger at him, then spun on her heel and wandered down the werewolf's path, her ponytail swishing behind her.

"Um...What just happened?" Kaldur asked, plainly baffled.

Megan patted him on the shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry, Kaldur. I think she just likes to confuse people." Kaldur nodded, but still looked a little puzzled, but he followed behind her nonetheless.

Dick followed after both of them, stuffing extra baggies and containers in his jacket pockets.

Not far down the trail, Artemis waved the boys over. "Guys, over here. It looks like...ripped clothing, maybe?" There was a mess of shredded cloth. It looked like it had once been a suit, with what appeared to be a white button up and a black jacket. The remains of a tie (or what they all guessed to be the remains of a tie) lay in a heap by a tree stump, as if it had been yanked off violently.

Dick gathered the clothing into a large zip lock bag and Kaldur walked around, taking pictures of everything before he moved it. Artemis's grey irises searched the woods beyond the man – or monster – made clearing, but there was no use. The destructive path ended where they were standing, where the man had changed.

They then began walking back. Suddenly, a high pitched scream filled the air. The three exchanged a look then ran down the trail. Their feet crashed against the hard packed dirt and slipped forward every so often from the dry leaves, but they kept running. Finally, they reached the attack point and found the source of the scream.

Megan was standing on top of a log, her arms around Conner's face. On the ground was the largest rat any of them had even seen. It was the size of a small poodle but about a hundred pounds heavier. It had glowing red eyes and its fur was brown and ragged. Its teeth were longer than its jaw.

Artemis covered her surprise with a, "Really? A rat?" She took a step forward. "SHOO!" It turned to her and hissed and she took a step back.

"We tried that." Wally said from beside Conner and Megan. Conner had managed to pry Megan's arms from his face, but now they were wrapped around his upper arm.

Kaldur picked up a nearby branch and swung it near the rat. It hissed again, but bolted at the prospect of being hit with the stick. It took off down the trail the werewolf had come from and sped into the trees.

"Does anyone want to explain why we just saw a dog-sized-rat?" Dick asked. No one had an answer for that.

The teens gathered their things and left the woods rather quickly after that.

The church their next stop. It was abandoned, with crumbling walls and yellow grass that went well above their knees. The short iron- barred gate was open and swung freely, creaking with its rust and age. The cross was taller than two of Kaldur stacked up and was the only thing on the property that didn't look its age. It had once been painted a pearly white, but had faded over the years and was now sulfur yellow. There were a few chips in paint here and there, but otherwise it stood just as strong as the night before, looming over the teens protectively.

"This is where we stopped. Whatever it was chased us for, what Kaldur, ten blocks?" Artemis told them. Kaldur inclined his head.

"It is twelve blocks from here to the old mansion-"

"The mansion? As in Edwards mansion?" Megan interrupted. Again, Kaldur nodded. "I hate that old mansion. It's so creepy."

"Well, as I was saying, we were chased all the way here but for some reason, it just stopped when we got here." Artemis said.

"Vampires don't like crucifixes. That's why he disappeared." Dick said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'm not sure if I believe all of this though. There's no scientific proof behind any of what's happening and until there is, I don't know if I can believe it." Wally said. Kaldur and Conner nodded their agreement.

"But, Conner, it tried to kill us!" Megan exclaimed.

"That doesn't mean it wasn't a guy in a suit." Conner said, shrugging.

"How about we follow our path to the mansion? Maybe there are some clues along the way." Kaldur interjected. The group of teens wandered along the way that Artemis and Kaldur had ran down the night before as they were chased by a tall figure in a billowing cloak.

They made it back to the mansion without finding anything, until Megan pointed something out.

"Look! There's some more of the weird glowing stuff over here." Everyone wandered over. Sure enough, next to the gate was a smear of it across the concrete. Dick took a sample while the others talked.

"There was a light on in the mansion last night." Kaldur told them.

"It could've been kids." Wally said reasonably.

"That's what I said. Then I was chased by a guy with fangs." Artemis said, a hand on her hip. "Wait, he kept calling me something too. What was it? Mia?"

"Mina." Kaldur supplied. Artemis nodded.

"And you called you Dr. Seward. It was just weird."

"He called you "my love" too. He acted as if he knew you." Kaldur said.

Artemis shrugged. "I had no idea who it was, at least until he introduced himself."

Dick had returned to the circle, the new found sample labeled and in his bag. "Who was it?"

Kaldur sighed. "According to him, he was Count Dracula."

Next was the museum, where Wally and Dick had seen a mummy just outside. But they came up empty handed after searching for anything; they didn't even find any of the silvery blue stuff.

"Hey, guys." Conner said. Everyone stopped searching and looked up at him. "I think we should check out the museum." He was pointing to the museum where there was two men standing on ladders, fastening a banner above the museum entrance. The banner advertised a newly found mummy on loan from Egypt.

"Just in time for Halloween." Wally read.

Fifteen minutes, the teens found themselves wandering through the museum, heading straight to where the new temporary exhibit was. But when they got there however, there was a large man in a black uniform guarding the curtained entrance. There was a sign that read "CLOSED" beside the guard.

"What are we going to do? What if there are clues in there?" Dick asked.

"I can distract him. You guys go when I signal." Artemis walked confidently towards the guard and turned sharply, right into him. Impressively, she knocked the large man down with her. "Zut!" She exclaimed loudly. "Excuse moi! Je suis très désolé! Je suis visite de Québec et j'ai perdu ma mère. As-tu lui vu?" She waved her hand frantically without the man seeing, urging the others on. "Parlez-vous français? Non? Oh. Làm thế nào về Việt Nam?"

The others bolted through curtains as Artemis continued firing rapid foreign languages at the poor guard, who looked hopelessly confused. At first, the exhibit appeared to be fine, ready for public viewing even. But if you say, walk up to the sarcophagus as Wally, Dick, Kaldur, Conner, and Megan did you would notice something quite important was missing. The sarcophagus's lid had a long crack across it, and the container itself was empty.

"Darn. I was sure there'd be something here." Megan whispered.

"Aside from the empty coffin?" Wally stage whispered back.

"I think she means the lack of strange liquid." Kaldur told him quietly. Outside, Artemis's voice became louder. It sounded like she had moved onto a new language and was running out. The teens did a final, quick search while Kaldur took a few rushed pictures then left quickly. Artemis saw them over the guards shoulder. She looked relieved.

"How about English? Yes? Oh, silly me!" Artemis smiled sweetly at him, then pretended to check the time as the teens turned the corner away from them. "Well, I really shouldn't trouble you anymore, I've taken far too much of your time. Look! There's my mother now! Bye!" She bolted away and around the corner, leaving the poor guard even more confused.

The others were waiting around the corner for Artemis and when she bolted from the guard. Once she caught up the group began to walk again.

"What'd you guys find?" Artemis asked. They were about to answer her question when a short grey haired man approached them.

"Did you pay to get in here?!" He demanded. Everyone recognised him. His name was Scott Edwards and he was the owner of the museum. He hated kids, especially when they snuck into his museum without paying.

Everyone pulled out their tickets and showed him. Still, he glared threateningly and left.

"That was weird." Megan said. Everyone nodded their agreement.

The teens went to the graveyard right after that, walking quickly. It was already one thirty and if they wanted to get to the library in time to be home for three o'clock to make it seem like they came from school, they'd have to hurry.

"How many languages do you speak anyway?" Wally asked as he walked beside Artemis. Dick was in front, leading the group to the graves.

"Fluently? Four: English, French, Vietnamese, and Spanish. But I'm working on Italian and German too."

"Impressive." Wally said.

"I know." Artemis lengthened her strides to talk to Megan about something. Wally smirked then followed after her.

They reached the graves, immediately noticing them due to their cracked-in-half state. The grass was dead and browned in a perfect circle around both graves, which none of the teens took as a good sign.

Artemis stepped forward and kneeled in front of the crumbling stones, trying to make out what they said. She squinted. "Umm...I think this one says Mildred Edwards."

Conner examined the one next to her. "Clement Edwards."

"They were married?" Megan asked.

"Or siblings." Wally said.

"Or both." Dick joked. Everyone shot him a look. "Just trying to ease the tension. You guys need to be more ense."

"Ense?" Kaldur asked.

"The opposite of tense." Dick said, like this was the most obvious thing in the world. Wally rolled his eyes.

"There's some of that goop there, on the graves." Artemis said, pointing.

"More like a bucket of it." Wally said. There was tons of the weird liquid there, oozing from between the cracks on the graves and spilling onto the grass. The bucket loads that Dick and Wally had seen the night before was dry and cracked. Dick took samples.

"I suggest we head to the library now. There is nothing else we can do here." Kaldur said.

Dick hiked his bag up his shoulder. "I'm going to take this to my dad's lab and run some tests. I'll meet you guys there."

"I'll go with you." Conner said.

Kaldur spoke, "Good. I do not think we should be going anywhere alone. Not after last night."

The group – sans Conner and Dick – got to the library ten minutes later. The library was huge, four levels high with bookcases so tall you had to use a ladder to reach the top. They chose a table on the fourth floor in the very back corner, where they were least likely to be disturbed.

"We should split up to get more done. I will go to try to find out who the Edwards are and what their significance is. Megan, you go check the list of checked out books for anything interesting. Wally, Artemis, you do some research on the monsters," his voice lowered, even though they were alone, "so that if they are real, we will be ready for them. We will meet here if we find anything important. Otherwise, meet back here in thirty minutes."

The teens set off for their assigned tasks, Megan back downstairs to the check out area, Kaldur down to the old town records, and Wally and Artemis just a few aisles over, where the books on monsters were located.

"So what do you think that silvery blue goop is?" Wally asked conversationally as they examined the shelves for anything interesting.

"I think it's an argentums tinted cerulean solution with some kind of dense base that gives it an abnormal texture and weight." Artemis answered smartly.

Wally looked over at her and grinned. "So you think it's silvery blue goop?"

Artemis looked at him, also grinning. "Pretty much." Wally laughed and her grin grew a little. "You know, you're nothing I expected you to be," she said seriously.

"Really? What'd you expect?"

"Oh, I don't know...meathead track star that gets lucky in his science classes."

Wally laughed again. "Well you're not exactly what I expected either." Artemis opened her mouth to ask, but Wally continued. "What'd I expect? Oh, I don't know...wannabe rebel that gets lucky in all her classes?" Artemis shoved his shoulder.

"Let's get to work. Idiot."

"So, what is it?" Conner asked impatiently from his spot on the lab bench. It was only about the ninth time he'd asked, but you couldn't blame him really. Dick hadn't answered him once, but only because he'd been so absorbed in his work. He heard him this time, though.

"I don't know. All I know is it's a mixture of some organic ingredients. But my computer is having difficulties finding what the specific ingredients are – wait. Holy crap!"

"What?!" Conner said, surprised at his sudden outburst. He uncrossed his arms and stood, wandering over to where Dick practically ran between was his tests.

"This mixture is synthetic." Dick was already up and moving, double checking all his other tests were running.

"Meaning?"

"This... stuff was made by a person." There was a beeping noise coming from one of the machines. Dick approached it, scanning the screen. "Holy crap!"

"What now?"

"This sample is what I took from the log Megan hit our wolfman with. And guess what? The DNA is a mix between human and wolf."

"Doesn't that mean-"

"It was a real werewolf? Yeah." Dick shoved some books into his bag with some test results and went to the door. "We need to tell the others."

Back in the library, Kaldur was flipping through some old obituaries, Megan was smiling sweetly at the librarian who handed over the library's 'confidential' records of checked out books, and Wally sat cross legged with a book in his lap while Artemis sat across and a little to the left from him.

"Hey, look at this." Artemis said. She began to read from her book: "'Contrary to popular belief, salt is not a ghost's weakness. It is, in fact, the sodium within the salt that repels and hurts the ghosts.'" She read then looked up at Wally. "That would explain why the fire extinguisher worked. It was a class BC extinguisher."

"Its main ingredient is sodium bicarbonate." Wally finished for her. Artemis nodded. They both went back to their books.

Downstairs, Megan had her head ducked as she read the list she had gotten from the librarian, heading to one of the tables so that she could read it under the light. She didn't notice the woman in front of her, also with a bowed head as she read. They slammed into each other and both fell to the ground, papers and books flying everywhere.

"I'm so sorry!" Megan exclaimed, rushing to grab her papers before the woman saw what they said. She tucked them all in the pocket of her sweater then went to helping her pick up her books. Megan's eyebrows knitted together at the titles. Titles such as "Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Ghostly Ghouls" and "Ghosts and Goblins: a Field Guide" and "Bubble, Bubble, Toil, and Trouble: a Witch's Guide to Life." Megan looked up to see none other than her old film studies teacher, Ms. Conwright, glaring at her through her inch-thick glasses. Megan remembered what everyone said about her supposed obsession with old black and white movies, especially monster movies.

"You should watch where you're going, young lady!" Miss Conwright spat.

"I'm very sorry. I should've been watching, you're right." Megan apologized again and helped the old lady to her feet. Conwright scoffed and turned on her heel, taking all her books with her. Except one, which Megan had hid behind her back. Once Conwright was out of sight, Megan pulled out the copy of Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble: a Witch's Guide to Life and examined it. Someone tapped her on the shoulder and she jumped, thinking it was Conwright. But it was only Kaldur, holding up an old newspaper.

"I am sorry, Megan. I did not mean to startle you. But I believe I have found something."

Megan shook her head, "Don't worry, Kaldur. And I think I might've too."

Artemis spied the exact book she had been looking for, up on a high shelf, and wondered as to how she was going to get it. It was an old book with a deep red binding and black shiny letters.

The shelf wasn't really all that taller than her, she wasn't about to ask for help. Wally, who was maybe a few inches taller than her, would've been able to grab it, so really, she wouldn't need the help. She stood on her tiptoes reaching up as far as she could, but still her fingers only brushed the spine of the old tome. Artemis narrowed her eyes determinedly.

Wally, meanwhile, had noticed what Artemis was doing. Her raised an eyebrow as she stood on her toes and reached, only barely touching the book. "You want some help?" He asked. Artemis shook her head, stood back, and began analysing the shelf.

Artemis made up her mind and braced a foot on one of the lower shelves then tested her weight on it. When it didn't sag or bend, she put her other foot on the next shelf up. She carefully climbed up another shelf and let go with one hand, grabbing onto the book. It was wedged tightly between the books on either side of it and she tugged hard once, twice until it finally came loose. Unfortunately, the book pulled out with so much momentum that it pulled her back. She lost her balance and began to fall. But somehow she didn't hit the ground, as she thought she would. She hit something much softer and opened her eyes cautiously. Wally had caught her bridal style and was grinning down at her. His arms held her under her knees and behind her shoulders, while one of her arms was around his shoulders and the other...was gripping her book.

She looked up at Wally. "You can put me down now."

Wally was about to say something when Megan appeared at the end of their aisle. "Guys - Oh. Um...sorry!" Megan looked surprised. Neither really realized why, at least until they remembered their current positions. Wally let go of Artemis and she landed with catlike grace while both tried to stammer out what had happened. Megan just nodded her head a little embarrassedly. The trio left (Artemis holding her book somewhat victoriously) and went back to the table, where everyone else had already gathered.

"I figured out who Mina and Doctor Seward are." Wally said, holding a large book. He placed it on the table for everyone to see. "They're both characters in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Dr. Seward was a doctor at a mental institution that studies one of Dracula's victims."

"What about Mina?" Artemis asked.

"You sure it was Mina?" Wally asked. Artemis nodded. "She's John Harker's fiancé. He hunts Dracula."

"What's so special about her though?"

Wally winced. "She's the chick Dracula goes after to be his new bride."

"Great." Artemis said sarcastically.

Dick held up his test results then slid them across the table to Kaldur, Megan, Artemis, and Wally. "I got DNA results on the blood from the stick Megan used to hit the werewolf. It's a combination between wolf and human."

Wally shrugged, "That could mean that there was wolf blood on the stick before she used it to hit the human in the head. They could've mixed."

"What are the chances, though?" Conner said from next to Dick.

"And the goop was made of organic ingredients, but it was synthetic. Someone made it." Dick continued.

"Someone is making monsters?"Kaldur asked.

Dick nodded, "In theory."

"That ties in with exactly what I found." Megan said. "I looked through the list of checked out books but found nothing interesting so I dug a little deeper. On the list of missing and stolen books I found a set called Practical Spells for Impractical Situations." She put the list on the table. "The two books in the set are: Volume I: a Brief History on Monsters, and Volume II: How to Raise a Ghost & Make Your Own Monster. These books were all stolen exactly six days ago."

"The day before the freakish storm." Conner said. Megan nodded. Then she told them about her run in with Miss Conwright, showing them the book she took.

"That is weird." Wally agreed.

"I have found out whom Mildred and Clement Edwards were. They were the founder of the school and the first English teacher, respectively. They met on the job, and you will not believe where they used to live. The old mansion." He paused dramatically. "I found the current owner of the old Edwards mansion is their very great grandchild, Mr. Scott Edwards."

Artemis leaned forward onto her forearms onto the table. "Well, boys. And Megan. I think that the old mansion deserves a visit."

They planned for Dick to pick them all up after their parents went to bed and exchanged addresses and phone numbers before they all split up and headed for home. Around eleven, Dick snuck out and began picking everyone up. First Wally, then Megan, Conner, and Kaldur. They pulled up to Artemis's apartment building last.

She came down from the fire escape once they pulled up to the curb, and ran across the sidewalk to the car. Even though it was Dick's car, Kaldur drove with Megan between him and Conner in the front bench seat, while Dick and Wally sat in the back bench seat that sat against the opposite wall of the door. She opened the side van door and slid in next to Wally.

"What time period did you take this car from? Prehistoric?" Was Artemis's way of greeting them. Dick looked offended.

"It's a 1986 Volkswagen Vanagon with original dark blue paint." Artemis looked unimpressed.

"Hi, Artemis!" Megan said, turning around.

"Hey, Meg." Artemis replied.

Everyone must've had the same idea about clothing choices, because they all wore black clothing, even Conner who no one had ever seen out of a black shirt and blue jeans.

"What's this?" Artemis kicked a bag that sat at Wally's feet.

"Well, you know how we made that list with all the weaknesses? I went through it and Dick and I gathered everything we could find from it." He unzipped the hockey bag and began to pull various items out of it. "I've got crosses and garlic for our fanged friend, lighters and matches for the mummy – you could also unwrap it, it just depends on the legend–, there's some salt, iron screws and nails, I've got all the silver we could find-"

Artemis picked something up. "A spoon? Really? What're we gonna do with this? Scoop it to death?"

"It's silver." Wally said defensively. "We also found this cane, see the top? Silver plated so hopefully it'll do the job. And then we got some utility belts to put this stuff in."

"I brought the stoker I used in the school." Conner said, holding it up as proof.

"Let's get these together so they're ready once we get there." Dick said, picking up a belt. The trio sorted everything into the utility belts so that everyone got two lighters, a cross, a string of three cloves of garlic, a silver fork and three silver steak knife, a small pouch of salt, and a handful of iron screws and nails.

Kaldur parked behind some trees next to the property and they all loaded out of the van. Wally took out the last items in the bag – six wooden stakes – and handed them out as they climbed out of the car. "Remember, the stake has to go through the vampire's heart to kill it. Anywhere else will only slow it down. Same with the wolf and the silver." He picked up the cane. "Megan gets the cane, for her killer swing." She accepted it with a smile.

"I've got the backpack." Artemis picked it up and slipped it on her shoulders. It had an extra flashlight and some batteries in it, but was otherwise empty.

They all buckled on their belts, tucking the wooden stakes in them. They all approached the gate, but found someone had chained it shut with a large padlock. Wally grabbed it and shook it.

"What do we do now?" He said.

"We will have to come back tomorrow." Kaldur said disappointedly.

Artemis stepped to the front of the group. "Obviously, you people have never broken into an abandoned building before." Artemis said. "Really, I'm disappointed in you guys." She knitted her fingers together and bent slightly at her knees, facing Wally.

"What are you doing?" He asked, eyeing her position.

"Giving you somewhere to put your foot so that you can grab the top of the gate and swing over. I can jump it. Well, what are you waiting for?" Wally put his foot in her hand and Conner grabbed the other. Together, they pushed him up. Next went Conner, then Megan, then Kaldur. Artemis hoisted Dick up, who was light enough for her alone but also agile enough to swing himself up and over, doing a handstand on top and landing lightly on his feet. Artemis backed up a few feet and stared at the top of the fence with determination. She took a running start at it, launching herself up by stepping on the chains, which fell with a loud clink after her foot came away, then grabbed the fence with both hands. She pulled herself up then sat on the top and swung her feet over. She jumped down and landed gracefully next to Megan.

"C'mon, before someone sees us." Dick said. They group jogged up the winding road to the mansion and stopped at the door. Artemis knelt in front of it, pulling a small manicure kit out of her jacket pocket. She pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and a nail file out of the kit and inserted it into the lock. She jiggled it around a bit until there was a satisfying click. The door swung open slowly, creaking as it went.

"Why do I feel like that wasn't the first time you'd done that?" Dick asked.

"Because it wasn't. This place is smaller than it looks. It has three floors, an upstairs, the main level, and the basement." When Artemis looked behind her, everyone looked a little shocked. She shrugged. "This isn't my first rodeo."

The entrance hall was almost pitch black, but you could see the rough outline of things. Light from the full moon inched through the filthy windows and made everything somewhat visible. Everything was covered in about ten years worth of dust. The entrance hall was long but not very wide. The walls were lined with doors and a large set of stairs dominated the room off to the right. There was a door to the left of the stairs, which probably led to the cellar.

"Here we go." Megan said as they stared down into the dark hall. Kaldur entered first, after only a moment's hesitation, quickly followed by everyone else.

"This place is huge. We should split up and search for clues." Kaldur said.

"I'll take the basement." Artemis volunteered. Everyone looked at her confusedly.

"Why?" Dick asked.

Artemis shrugged one shoulder. "That place freaks me out. I want to face it."

"Noble." Wally said.

"Not really. I just don't like being freaked out."

"Alright. Megan and Dick, you take the top floor. Conner and I will take this floor. Wally, you and Artemis will take the basement. Remember to be careful." Kaldur said.

"Don't worry about us, Kaldur. It's just a big old empty mansion on Halloween eve. What could go wrong?" Artemis said, taking out her flashlight and flicking it on.

Dick turned on his light too and he and Megan went up the stairs, Megan with the bat ready to swing. Kaldur and Conner wandered over to one of the doors and opened it with a loud creak. Wally and Artemis went to the basement door.

The stairs opened up to what looked like it used to be a combination of a study and a library at some point. On the other side of the room was a long hallway, but both Megan and Dick were much more interested in the library.

"Megan, look at this." Dick was standing behind the desk, while Megan was examining the book shelves behind him. She looked over at him while Dick pointed to the desk. "No dust. Someone's been working here."

Megan looked back at the shelves. "No one's touched these books for – wait...never mind. This looks interesting." Megan said. She pulled it out to reveal a brown leather book. She went and stood beside Dick while he shone a flashlight on it. She untied the leathers straps holding it closed and pulled it open. The lined pages were littered with messy handwriting and penciled diagrams.

"It's some kind of journal. Look at all this. Strengths, weakness, body composition. It's like a field guide on the monsters. Dick, what if this belongs to The Shadow?"Megan asked.

"What kind of shadow keeps a journal?"

"A shadow who's really a man in a mask, that's who. What if The Shadow's the guy making the monsters? Remember in the gym when Artemis sprayed the fire extinguisher? The ghosts bolted but The Shadow got hit a little and he didn't have any reaction."

"It makes sense. Make monsters and pretend you are one to throw off suspicion. Now all we need to know is why." Dick picked up the journal and flipped through a few pages. "Wait look at this. It says that the monsters become invulnerable after midnight on Halloween."

Megan looked at him. "But that's tomorrow."

"Let's keep looking." Dick began to look through the desk, careful not to disturb any dust. He put the journal on the table to grab for later. Megan walked to the other side of the room and passed underneath the glass skylight, where the full moon shone down brightly.

Kaldur and Conner began to open doors, looking inside for anything interesting. Most of the rooms were covered in about a foot of dust, telling them no one had so much as looked inside for years. Some doors were even jammed with all the mold and the boys had to use their shoulders to knock them open. Conner opened his fifth door, then waved Kaldur over.

"Kaldur, look at this." He had found some kind of old fashioned theatre, with filthy web covered red velvet seats and a projector in the back. The opposite wall held a large white screen. Conner walked down the middle aisle and Kaldur fiddled with the projector.

"This projector is not very old; maybe ten years? This mansion has been abandoned for seventy." He told Conner.

"This chair's been sat in recently. No dust, no grime, no webs. It's clean." Conner said as he reached the front row, pointing to the middle seat. Kaldur figured out how the projector worked and it turned on, showing an old black and white silent film. Both boys paused to watch. There was a woman on the screen and she was moving rather quickly through a dark park. She looked terrified. The camera cut to what was plainly a mummy shuffling after her. It swung back to the woman, who saw her pursuer and screamed noiselessly.

"My flashlight's dead. Didn't you check the batteries?" Artemis's voice bit through the pitch black basement. Her flashlight had flickered out and Wally's hadn't even turned on.

"Well I didn't see you with any supplies, Miss Thing." Wally shot back.

"Please, without me you guys would still be outside that gate – oh, never mind. There's an extra flashlight in the bag. Just let me turn around." She turned and Wally reached for the bag. "That is not the backpack." Artemis snapped suddenly.

"Sorry!" A very embarrassed Wally managed to force out. "Here, found it." He took the flashlight out of the bag and flicked it on. At the same moment, Artemis's flickered back on. She looked down on it.

"Oh now you decide to turn on." She told it sarcastically. She took it out of her belt and started towards a wall, while Wally went to the other.

"Artemis, look." He pointed his flashlight at the wall in front of him. It was covered with shelves that only held jars of the blue goop.

"Just how many monsters is this guy planning on making?" Artemis asked.

"My guess is a lot." Wally grabbed a smaller jar. "I'll take some for Dick." Artemis nodded at him, then went back to her wall, which was lined with filing cabinets. She opened one at random and found tons of packages of paper, sorted neatly into rows and folders with little letters on them, symbolising some kind of alphabetic order. She out the small flashlight in her mouth and picked one out at random, reading the title out loud.

"Werewolf of London, written by Robert Harris and John Colton." She held it up for Wally to see. "A script. There's dozens of them."

"I've heard of that. It's a movie from like, seventy years ago. Take one, it might come in handy." Wally said, then went back to his search. Artemis nodded and stuffed the script into her bag. She opened the next cabinet and found this one significantly emptier. It held only a few packages, but each was easily three times as long as the first one. She picked one up and read.

"The Black Shadow. It doesn't say who it's by. You ever heard of this one?"

"Nope." Artemis stuffed that one in her bag too. "Hey, I found a light switch. Brace your eyes." Wally clicked it on and the entire room was flooded with light. Artemis turned to face him, but stopped when she saw what was sitting in the corner.

"Wally?" He must've noticed her change in tone because he turned around, looking worried. Artemis pointed and Wally followed it. There was a deep mahogany coffin lying on the floor, closest to Artemis. She already had her stake out and was backing up from it, towards Wally. He met her halfway.

"You open it, I'll stake him." Wally whispered.

"And let you have all the fun? Fat chance." Artemis riposted easily but it was ruined with her nervous tone.

"Just do it, Artemis." She looked like she was about to argue, but thought better of it. Together, they approached the coffin. Artemis kneeled on one side, while Wally stood ready at the other. "One." He mouthed and Artemis took the edges of the coffin lid. "Two...Three." Artemis swung open the coffin door and Wally flung the stake down to where the vampire's heart would be. But the coffin was empty. Wally pulled the stake out of the cushioned satin lining of the coffin and sent Artemis a relieved smile, which she returned. They both stood up and turned towards the stairs, only to have their path blocked by a cloaked figure creeping down the stairs.

"Dick, did you hear that?" Megan paused her search. Dick looked up from the shelves.

"Hear what? Megan shook her head.

"Nothing, I guess. I just thought I heard something."

Dick smiled reassuringly. "It's just this old house. Probably just a rat or something." Megan shivered.

"I hate rats."They went back to work.

"This guy has some crazy obsession with monsters." Dick said.

"I know, they're everywhere."

"Look what I found." Dick said. He held up a large book entitled A Brief History on Monsters. "It's the book that was stolen from the library."

"Is the other one here?"

"No."

"Darn." A few minutes later, the same thing happened as before. "Did you hear that?" Megan asked. This time, Dick nodded.

"Actually, yeah. It sounded like it came from the hallway."

"Should we go check it out?"But Dick didn't have time to answer. A door slammed open and both teens jumped, their necks snapping to look. Something moved in the hallway, dragging its feet and sniffing loudly. Neither teen moved.

A huge furry figure appeared in the entrance way and howled. The fur on the top of the right side of his head was crusted with dry blood, courtesy of Megan.

"Dick." Megan said quietly. The wolfman looked at her. "The book. Find its weakness. I've got him." She raised the cane like a bat. Dick nodded quickly and began to back up, towards the desk, but the werewolf looked at him and snarled.

"Hey! Um..you!" Megan yelled. It swung back to look at her. "That's right you, um, you overgrown fuzz ball!" The werewolf stepped towards her and Megan took a step back. Dick backed into the desk and carefully navigated around it, not taking his eyes off the monster as it advanced on Megan. She lured it back towards her and waited for it to come in her swinging range. Finally, it was only a few feet away, and Megan took the first swing. It hit the beast in the stomach and the werewolf let out a yelp of pain. Dick grabbed the book and Megan ran around the creature, grabbing Dick and shoving him behind her and into the hallway. She took another swing as Dick flipped through the pages hurriedly, the flashlight in his mouth. The creature dodged the next swing.

"Batter up." Megan said under her breath. Again, she waited, then swung and connected the wolf in the arm. The silver seemed to be slowing it down somewhat, but not enough.

"Anytime would be great, Dick!" Megan said as the werewolf swatted a clawed paw at her, forcing her to shove Dick back and jump sideways, into the wall. It swatted another paw and Megan used the cane to knock it back.

"Found it! His left ear!" Dick said victoriously.

"Left ear. Got it!" Megan swung with all her might into hitting the wolfman's left ear. But instead of falling, the wolf only paused to growl loudly at her.

"His left! Not yours!" Dick said as he once again got shoved back. He got a plan and opened one of the doors. "Meg, over here!" Megan's eyes fluttered to the door for only a moment, and she understood. She backed up, forcing the creature to follow, until he was standing with the open door to his right.

Megan swung the cane, connecting it with his left ear. It howled out in pain and stumbled back, into the open room. Dick slammed the door and stuck a candlestick holder from the wall through the door's curved handle.

"That won't hold him for long, come on!" Megan grabbed Dick's hand and pulled him after her, back to the library and down the stairs.

Kaldur and Conner had left the theatre, finding nothing else. They moved on to what they guessed used to be the parlor, but it was hard to tell with everything covered in white sheets. It was the only other room on this floor not completely covered in dust and grime so they thought they might as well start there.

Conner went to shift through some crumbling papers on the table and Kaldur went to the bookcase, eyes scanning the titles. A low moaning sound came from behind them, in the doorway. Both boys froze.

"Kaldur? Was that you?" Conner asked.

"I am afraid it was not I." Kaldur said. Both teens turned slowly. In the doorway stood a tall, honest-to-goodness mummy. It groaned. It's uneven shoulders were prominent and it walked with a heavy limp. "Wally said that it could be killed by unwrapping it."

"After you," Conner said as it approached them.

"We could also set it on fire." Kaldur said, stepping back and it got closer. Conner looked around, finding what he was looking for on the wall. He grabbed the (quite convenient) candlestick and braced his foot against the wall, pulling it off. He took a lighter from his belt and flicked it open, letting the flame come to life. He lit the candlestick and took a step forward.

"Get ready to run," he warned Kaldur. He jabbed the fire into the mummy and both boys took off. The mummy began to scream something terrible as its body was consumed in flames. The sound and image would haunt the boys for weeks.

"Mina, my beautiful bride; you have come at last." The vampire stood at the top of the stairs, grinning down at Artemis and Wally. Artemis narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, not you again." Artemis sighed exasperatedly, despite the shiver that just ran through her. "And I am not Mina or your bride," she snapped.

Dracula looked away from Artemis and at Wally. He scowled. "Jonathon Harker. So we meet again."

"Harker?" Artemis asked. Dracula began to descend the stairs, faster than you would think.

"I'll explain later, come on!" Wally grabbed Artemis's hand and pulled her away from the stairs and back into the basement.

"Any ideas?" Artemis asked him.

Wally looked around the basement, finding no way out; besides, of course, the one Dracula stood in front of. His eyes landed on the shelves of blue goop. "I've got it. Come on." He stood at the end of the shelves. Artemis realized what he was doing and tried to hurry over to where the stairs were but Wally grabbed her wrist and forced her behind him.

"Nu-uh. You're staying right here." He said. When she tried to argue he just sent her a look. He braced his arms against the shelf. Dracula appeared at the bottom of the stairs and took a few steps forward. Wally pushed against the shelf, shoving it forward and onto the vampire. It knocked him down, the sheer weight of the jars and shelf overtaking him. The blue goop spilled everywhere but Wally didn't wait a moment. He grabbed Artemis again and pulled her behind him, around the vampire and up the stairs (but not without Artemis aiming a quick kick on the monster first.)

They made it to the top of the stairs at the exact moment as Kaldur and Conner emerged from the study and Megan and Dick ran from upstairs. Wally let go of Artemis's hand only to grab a sword from a nearby suit of armor, then shove it through the curved door handle. He did it just in time, as the monster began to bang on the door at the same moment. The six all met in the entrance hall, simultaneously shouting what monster they had met. A shrill laughter filled the air and everyone stopped looking up. The ghosts flew above them, looking happy as could be.

"Why do they always look so damn happy?!" Dick asked.

"There has to be a logical explanation for this." Wally said as he looked up at the ghosts.

"Seriously?! You still don't believe it? How the hell would you explain all this?!" Exclaimed Artemis.

"Holograms and special effects!" Wally answered smartly. Concurrently, all the doors slammed open, revealing a flaming mummy, a vampire covered in blue goop, and a seriously pissed off werewolf.

"What don't you tell them that?!" Artemis said.

"Could you possibly argue about all this later!?" Dick said. By their way of agreeing, the group all turned and ran, Conner only pausing to swipe one of the ghosts with his iron fire stoker.

No one bothered to wait for a hand up this time. They all took the fence at a run, hitting it and climbing over on their own. The six rushed to the van, where Wally opened the back door for everyone while Kaldur slid across the hood and got in behind the wheel, starting the ignition and firing the car away. Conner and Megan climbed over and into the front seat. Megan looked out the front window and into the sky.

"I don't think they're following!" She said. As if on cue, the back doors of the van swung open, and Wally, Artemis, and Dick, who had not been in their seats but instead crouched behind the front seat, fell back. The ghosts flew outside, laughing maniacally.

"HOLD ON!" Kaldur yelled. He turned sharply, and only Dick and Wally had time to heed his command. Artemis fell again, falling against Wally, who somewhat caught her with her back to his chest. The ghosts still gained, despite Kaldur's insane driving. Now a large bat had joined them, shrieking.

"Vampire bat!" Megan shouted to no one in particular.

Dick was first to recover after Kaldur's sharp turn and he reached into his utility belt to fling a handful of screws and nails at the ghosts. The man took the brunt of it and fell back but the woman continued to gain. Artemis and Wally finally got themselves sorted out and Wally grabbed the stoker from Conner. He swung it through the ghost, hitting the bat too. The ghost disappeared but it only discouraged the vampire.

Kaldur made another sharp turn and everyone in the back slammed into the left side of the van. Artemis stood and grabbed the stoker from Wally. She stuck her garlic cloves on the end and stood, still managing to hold on as the van was still bumping and jumping violently. She swung the stoker and hit the vampire with the garlic, causing it to shriek loudly and fall back. Dick and Wally somehow managed to grab the doors and slam them closed. Artemis sat down on the floor and tried to calm her ragged breathing. Dick and Wally seemed to have the same idea, sitting on either side of her. Megan and Conner sunk into their seats and Kaldur breathed a sigh of relief.

Kaldur continued driving and constantly checked his mirrors to be sure they had lost the monsters, while the others relayed what they had found.

"We found an old theatre. It was weird; it had a projector and all these old black and white movies. Then we went to the parlor, where the mummy found us. We set it on fire then came and found you guys." Conner said.

"Old movies?" Wally asked. Conner nodded. Artemis continued for him.

"We found a bunch of old movie scripts in the basement." Artemis pulled the scripts out of her bag, holding up Werewolf of London. "But there was also a few like this." Artemis held up The Black Shadow.

"And there were tons of jars of blue ooze. Here, Dick, we grabbed some for you." Wally said, handing him the jar. Dick looked a little too excited about it.

Megan positioned herself so she could hand back the books they found. "We found a library upstairs. Everything was covered in dust, except for the desk. And this." She handed back the journal and everyone – except Kaldur – flipped through it. "And this: one of the books that was stolen from the library." She passed that around too.

"We think The Shadow could be the person behind all this."Dick said.

"The Shadow actually a man in a mask? Seems probable." Wally said. They pulled over and Dick took the wheel, then pulled away from the curb, starting towards Megan's house, which was closest.

"What do you guys think we should do next?" Artemis asked. "We've been everywhere where there's been an attack."

"Not everywhere." Megan said.

"Where else?" Conner asked.

"The school." She answered.

"But we cannot be seen there. We have been suspended." Kaldur said.

"We can't be seen there, you're right. Everyone meet at my house tomorrow. I've got an idea." They pulled to a stop outside her house and she waved goodbye before leaving. Next then dropped off Conner, then Kaldur. They waited to be sure everyone got in okay and only pulled away when the person inside waved at them from the window.

They pulled up to Artemis's apartment. She was about to get out when Wally grabbed her forearm. Artemis looked down at his hand questioningly.

"Maybe you should stay at my house tonight. Or Megan's, or something."

Artemis raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"Dracula has that creepy thing for you. What if he finds you?" At first, Artemis thought he was kidding but then she saw genuine worry in his eyes.

"Don't worry about me. He had just as much chance as finding me at your house or Megan's as he does at mine. Besides, I have to invite him in, right? I just won't let any strange men into my apartment." He looked unconvinced so she continued. "If it makes you feel better, I'll sleep with a stake and some garlic." She was kidding.

He wasn't. "At least put some cloves on your doors and windows. And text me if anything happens." Meanwhile, Dick was snickering in the front.

Artemis nodded with a strange look on her face, "I will."She glanced down at his hand again and he let go, as if realizing he was still holding her arm. She opened the door and got out. "I'll read these scripts tonight. Good night, guys."

"Night, Artemis." Dick said.

"Good night." Wally said with a smile, which she returned with some confusion. She closed the door and the boys watched her go into the building. Her face appeared in one of the upper level windows a couple minutes later and she waved down. Dick began to drive away as Wally hopped in the front seat. Dick opened his mouth, but Wally cut him off.

"Not a word." He said. Instead, Dick grinned.

Halloween morning was a brisk one, with biting Autumn air and a warm breeze that picked up multi-coloured leaves and let them fly freely. It was setting up to be perfect trick or treating weather. As children adorned their costumes, excitedly waiting to show them off to their friends, six teenagers prepared for something a lot more dangerous than night time trick or treating.

They all met at Megan's house the next day, as planned. Her uncle worked early, so they didn't have to worry about him. They settled themselves on the couches, where Megan had laid out an array of breakfast foods on the coffee table, while Megan herself ran upstairs to get the, as she called them, disguises.

"One of my older brothers has been in about a million plays and he left all his old costumes here when he went to college. I just went through them and found stuff that would fit all of you. Artemis, I just grabbed some of my old costumes that'll fit you too." She had put each outfit in a labeled bag for the boys. She pointed to a few doors. "Those are the guest room and my uncle's room. You guys can change in there. Artemis and I are going upstairs to change in my room. Meet back here in twenty minutes." With that, she grabbed Artemis's hand and tugged her upstairs. Artemis sent a somewhat alarmed look over her shoulder at the guys, who snickered.

After the girls disappeared upstairs, the guys took their bags to the first and second guest rooms, where they could get ready.

"We should get changed so that we can make for third period." Kaldur said.

"You know, Artemis, you have such pretty hair. You should try other things than a ponytail once it a while." Megan said as she brushed out Artemis's waist length blonde hair. The blonde herself didn't look entirely thrilled with her current situation.

"Thanks, Megan, but I like to have it out of my face."

"Oh. Well, it's still very pretty." She braided it down the side, over her shoulder. She added in a string of little white flowers as Artemis watched curiously in the vanity mirror. "So what kind of image am I going for?"

Megan finished her braid and put her chin on Artemis's shoulder. "It's a surprise. Your outfit is on the bed, though. Now move so I can get my hair done." Both girls laughed and Artemis moved. She took one look at her outfit and sighed.

Megan began to tease up her hair and apply thick black eyeliner. "You know, Artemis, you're actually a very nice person. Why do you always act so...rude?"

Artemis was taken a little aback at how blunt the girl was. She recovered quickly, however, and shrugged. "Consider it a survival tactic."

Megan turned around to face her. She had a worried look on her face, but Artemis found it difficult to take her seriously with one eye thick with black eyeliner and the other completely bare of makeup. "We're still going to be friends after this, right?"

Artemis gave her a small smile. "Of course." Megan squealed and jumped up and the next thing Artemis knew was there was a red headed girl hugging her and jumping all at the same time.

"What's taking the girls so long?" Conner asked. The girls were only ten minutes late, and the boys waited in their disguises in the living room. Dick was dressed in full jock get-up, complete with the douche-y sunglasses and school letterman jacket (no one really wanted to ask where Megan got that). Conner was dressed as a nerd with brown shorts that were a little above his knees and black suspenders. His white socks went half way up his shins; his glasses had tape in the middle, and red bowtie was slightly askew. Kaldur wore an oversized blue tracksuit with huge chains, sunglasses, a sideways hat, and even a fake goatee to complete the look of a wannabe gangster. Wally was dressed like a Goth in baggy black pants, a black shirt with black mesh sleeves, a long trench coat minus the sleeves, and an array of chains. Dick had helped him put on black lipstick and eyeliner with the aid of Megan's written instructions. He even had a fake nose ring.

"I am sure the girls will be here soon." Kaldur said with his usual calamity. It was strange to hear such words from someone dressed like him.

"Ready to go?" Megan had appeared from down the hallway. She had teased her hair slightly and added a band that wrapped around her forehead and was wearing a crop top advertising Madonna and high-waisted black shorts. Her black combat boots and think eyeliner completed her hipster outfit. Artemis stood a foot behind her, her image obvious. She wore a white sundress, her hair braided down one shoulder with little flowers embedded within it, plus a thin headband with the same flowers as in her braid. Her cork wedge heels made her look like a total good girl; someone who'd enjoy picking flowers in her spare time. The complete opposite of Artemis.

They all assessed each other's costumes. Megan smiled at her handiwork, "I think I did very well, if I do say so myself."

"We should get going. We can make our plan on the way, and share our findings."Kaldur said.

"I parked the car out back." Dick told them. The group followed him out. Dick tossed Kaldur the keys and he got in behind the steering wheel, everyone assuming the spots they had the night before.

"So I read the scripts." Artemis said, pulling the scripts in question out of her canvas bag. "This one, Werewolf of London, is the real deal. I looked it up and the first few pages match the original script right down to the punctuation. The other one on the other hand seems to be written by whoever's making the monsters. It's just...bad. The grammar's terrible, the spelling is so bad it's hard to read, and the plot is pretty much nonexistent. It's pathetic. But, what plot there is, sounds achingly familiar. It's about this super hot extremely rich guy who can turn into this monster on will. He can also use magic to create monsters. In the end he gets the girl, takes over the world, and all the people begin to, happily I might add, worship him as some kind of god."

"Sounds healthy." Wally remarked sarcastically. Artemis snorted.

"You have no idea."

"I read the journal. This thing is gold." Megan said, pulling it out of her hobo bag. "It has every experiment he conducted, every detail of every monster, from strengths to weaknesses. Something tells me that The Shadow's going to notice its missing."

"In that case, we must keep it safe." Kaldur said. Megan nodded.

"Another thing, the first experiments he did was on rats."

"Rats? Like the one we saw in the forest?" Conner said, pushing his glasses up his glasses.

"Exactly."

"I got the results back from the goop." Dick said. "It's called Moon's Breath. I found it in the book." Dick held up the page, which he had dog eared. "It's mentioned a bunch of times. It's part of the monster making process."

"Does it say how to reverse the process?" Kaldur asked.

Dick shook his head. "The only thing it says about reversal is we need to make a potion. But the ingredients and instructions are listed in the second book."

"So we need the second book to kill the monsters?" Wally asked. Dick nodded.

"And according to this one, we need it by midnight Halloween night."

"So we need to find this book, make the potion, get the potion to the monsters, kill the monsters, and unmask The Shadow, all before midnight tonight. Sounds doable." Artemis said dryly.

"We should stay optimistic about the whole thing." Megan said brightly.

"I agree." Kaldur said. He pulled over about a block away from the school, then turned around in his chair. "We should split up and look for clues. I don't want to risk being in the school too long. Dick, you and I will go to the gym. Megan, you and Conner will go to the drama department. Check to see if any costumes are missing."

"Costumes?" Megan asked.

"I have a hunch."Kaldur said simply. "And you, being part of the drama department would notice something missing, correct?" Megan nodded. Kaldur continued. "That leaves you, Wally and Artemis, to look around the library. I know we cleaned it up ourselves, but we were not exactly looking for anything then."

"What are we looking for?" Artemis asked.

"Anything that does not seem to belong. Specifically, you could look for another copy of the book set. The chances are very slim, but it is still worth it. "Everyone nodded and left the car in pairs; first Conner and Megan, then Artemis and Wally, then Kaldur and Dick last.

Megan and Conner walked into the school together, other teenagers milling around them. Megan bit her lip.

"I wish I had known what pairs we were going to split off into. I would've made better outfits."

Conner looked at her, "I think you did great on the costumes." He looked down at his feet when he heard his own words, his face turning pink. Megan looked up at him and smiled.

"Thanks, Conner." She said brightly. "The costume house is this way." She directed him, pointing down an empty hallway. He followed her as she walked to a door with a keypad. She typed five-eight-seven-eight. The locked clicked and Megan turned the handle, holding the door open for Conner. She turned on the light to reveal a huge room filled to the brim with costumes. She picked a clipboard off the wall beside the door. Conner watched her amber eyes scan the words on the page.

"Nothing strange seems to be borrowed, but I guess I didn't really expect someone to write 'black cape borrowed by The Shadow.'" She laughed at herself and looked up, meeting Conner's eyes. Suddenly abashed, both teens looked away.

Conner cleared his throat. "We should get looking." Megan nodded.

"Each rack has a clipboard on it, and each costume has a number. Just match each thing with its number on the clipboard. If anything's missing, call out. You take the first two rows and I'll take the second two. We can work our way back."

Dick and Kaldur went straight to the gym, but stopped abruptly when they saw the closed sign taped to the door. Caution tape crossed the doors in a large 'X'. The boys exchanged a look then Dick opened it. Both guys slipped in through the doors. The gym looked worse than it had when they were there last.

Along with the chairs that had been flung across the room, the light bulbs were shattered, the glass covering the floor beneath them. The bleachers were all snapped in half, as was the stage. The walls were covered in black writing. "BOW TO THE SHADOW" it read over and over again.

"Holy angry ghosts, Kaldur." Dick said as they walked into the gym. Kaldur pulled the camera from Dick's bag and began taking pictures of the destruction. Dick went over to where The Shadow had been floating and began to examine the floor beneath. When he didn't find anything, he looked up.

"Hey, Kaldur. Look." Kaldur looked up to where Dick was pointing. "Those are the cables they use for the rings for gymnastics. You think he could've used that to make it look like he was flying?"

"If he did somehow attached himself to it, when it rose it would look very much like he was flying." Kaldur agreed, snapping a few pictures. The boys split up and began searching once again.

Wally held open the door for Artemis. "Ladies first." Artemis raised an eyebrow.

"Haven't you heard? Chivalry's dead." She crossed her arms, but walked through the door anyway. Wally jogged to catch up.

"I don't think so."

"Oh, really?"

"Yep."

"Prove it." Although they might've looked like they were arguing to other people, someone who knew them would recognise Wally's tiny smile and the spark in Artemis's eye, threatening to become a smile of her own.

"Where do you want to look?" Wally asked, still smiling.

"I think we should check the supernatural section and – why are you smiling like that?" She had been looking out at the shelves, but looking back at Wally had prompted her question. Wally shrugged.

"After you, milady," he said cheekily, bowing at her exaggeratedly. Artemis rolled her eyes, but led the way to her chosen section, fighting a smile.

If anyone thought the exchange was weird between the goth and the good girl, no one said anything.

"Megan, I've got something. There's supposed to be twelve masks here, but there's only eleven." Conner said after half an hour of searching.

"Me too. We're supposed to have two reaper cloaks, but there's only one here. It looks like there was something stained on it."

"What does it look like?"

"It's white and powdery." Megan responded after some examining. "It smells like cleaning products. I think whoever got it on here tried to get it off."

Conner looked over at her and she met his look. "The fire extinguisher; it hit the cloak, right? What if The Shadow just switched them out?" He said. Megan's eyes widened in surprise. Her phone beeped loudly. She checked its screen. "Dick wants to meet us in the cafeteria." Both teens turned around but halted suddenly when the lock on the door clicked.

"Someone's com-" was all Megan had time to whisper before Conner ducked into the rack between them, grabbing Megan and pulling her in with him. He put his hand over her mouth. They froze when a deep voice began talking, but neither could make out what he was saying. They could tell, however, that he sounded furious. He seemed to be giving commands to whoever was with him. He raised his voice.

"I need that journal. We are going to find it!" Familiar cackling filled the air and a wide eyed Megan looked over to Conner. He seemed to be holding his breath, but upon closer inspection Megan realized he was holding back a sneeze. Her hand zipped forward to pinch close his nostrils. They both looked at each other with relief, Conner's hand still over her mouth and her fingers pinching his nose. But then Megan's phone went off.

It was quiet, nothing more than a little beep, but it was enough for the ghosts. The Shadow stopped talking, as did the cackling.

"Who's there?!" He yelled, as if someone would answer. "Ghosts! Find out what that was!" He commanded.

"Yessssssss masssster," one said.

"Boooow to the massssster," the other responded. The sound of crashing clothing racks filled the air, getting closer and closer. The two teens subconsciously moved towards each other. Conner put his free arm protectively around Megan while she planned the safest way out, ready to drag Conner behind her. There were approximately twelve racks between them and the ghosts, but that margin was narrowing quickly. Megan knew about a vent in the back that both should be able to fit through. She wasn't sure where it led but at least it was a way out. She was about to pull Conner with her, but The Shadow yelled again instead.

"Enough! We don't have time for this! With me!" The voice boomed. The door opened then closed. Without letting go of each other, they leaned out and checked if the coast was clear. It was, of ghosts anyway. Almost the entirety of the drama department's clothing lay in a heap on the floor, their racks bare, with long white limbs. They reminded Megan vaguely of skeletons.

The two teens looked back at each other, apparently realizing their positions. Conner dropped his hand from her mouth and Megan let go of his nose.

"We should get back and tell the others." Megan said.

Conner sneezed.

Artemis was thumbing through the library book, her head bowed, when a mass of red hair rammed into her. Wally had pinned her against the bookshelf (the same one that had almost crushed her in detention).

"What the fuck?" She said. Wally put his hand over her mouth and she stopped trying to talk. Wally looked down the aisle and waited. He looked between the shelves and saw him coming. Wally quickly adjusted his position so that his arm was leaning on the shelf next to Artemis's face, blocking it from anyone looking down the aisle. He bowed his own head to block his face.

Artemis looked out of the corner of her eye at whoever Wally was blocking them from. Mr. Neil walked past with his huge janitorial cart, mumbling to himself.

Artemis looked up at Wally, raising her eyebrow. "Nice thinking, but I think we could've just hid behind the end of the shelves." Wally turned bright red.

Megan and Conner left the costume storage room at the same time Wally and Artemis left the library. They headed for Dick's chosen meeting point: the cafeteria. Megan and Conner were the last to arrive and found the others gathered by the door and joined them.

"You guys find anything?" Wally asked as they approached the group. Megan nodded and quietly relayed what happened in the costume storage to them.

"There was also a mask and a cape missing." Conner added when she had finished.

"The gym is completely wrecked. Worse than it was when we had left it. The ghosts must've gone back for more because they walls were covered in "Bow to the master". And I mean covered completely in it. Like the library, but it was everywhere. The bleachers were smashed, the chairs were snapped in half. Here, Kaldur took pictures." Dick said. Kaldur passed the camera around and the other four took turns clicking through the destruction. When Kaldur got the camera back, Artemis took over.

"We almost gave up in the library but we found this." Artemis said, gesturing to the book Wally held. "It's a book about old movie monsters, with their stats and strengths and weaknesses and everything. For fanatics or whatever. The library has a second copy and you'll never guess who has the other one."

Wally finished for her, "Principal Grimm."

"Grimm must've known we couldn't have wrecked the gym. We were busy cleaning the library, and besides, how would we snap a stage as strong as that one in half?" Kaldur asked.

"That's what I am thinking." Dick said. "The gym and the library are obviously connected with the written messages. I mean, he would've known that we didn't do it, so why are we still suspended? Unless..."

Conner took the bait. "Unless what?"

"Unless he needed a scapegoat." Dick answered.

"Are you saying he's behind all this?"

Dick shrugged. "It's plausible. He has motive, he hates everyone here and we all know he's counting the days to his retirement. He has means too. He can get in the mansion."

"Hold up, before we get ahead of ourselves here: just because he hates us doesn't mean he'd want to hurt us. We got into the mansion. Anyone can. As for the book, maybe he has a thing for monsters. Today is Halloween after all. Plus, Conwright's taken it out about a million times." Artemis argued.

Kaldur spoke. "Still, it is the best lead that we have. I suggest that we that we split up and tail him. Dick-"He stopped suddenly when the cafeteria lights began to flicker.

"Crap." Artemis said. The temperature dropped ten degrees. The other high school students looked around curiously.

"Everyone get ready." Kaldur commanded. Conner pulled the fire stoker from his bag. Megan looked at it.

"Do you bring that everywhere?"

"You complaining?"

"Nope." Megan said, bumping into his free arm. Out of nowhere, the windows all exploded, sending glass to shower on the students who did their best to cover their heads. An unnatural wind filled the cafeteria, whipping at their clothing and hair, causing papers to fly high above their head.

The lights flickered off and someone screamed. Chaos ensued; students ran in all directions, trying to find their way in the glass covered cafeteria. A single light went on, and beneath it, floating high above everyone else, was The Shadow.

"HELLO, HIGH SCHOOL MISCRIENTS." His voice boomed through the cafeteria and everyone froze, except the six.

People began to scream, running and trying to escape. But suddenly, the doors flung open and in came the monsters. First, the werewolf, who looked at everyone and roared mightily from his door. Everyone running towards that door turned hurriedly and went back to the middle of the room or tried the other doors.

"How is it in wolf form? It's the middle of the day!" Megan said over the screaming.

Then came the ghosts, who flew out of the far wall and over the terrified students. Next was a bat, which landed at the next door beside the werewolf with a pop. It was now a fully grown man, with spiked teeth in his sinister smile. But he wasn't the only bat to fly into the room. Three others followed behind, turning into three beautiful women, two with dark hair and one blonde. They landed in front of where The Shadow floated, hissing at anyone near.

"Dracula and his brides." Artemis whispered. Wally took a slight step towards her, and she didn't fight him on it.

A large green man with a strange gait followed, moaning all the way. He yelled when some students approached, scaring them off. "Jeepers, it's the creeper." Dick said.

Some kind of creature with emerald green gills completely covering it followed it in, its breathing rasped. He crossed his arms in front of the final door, smiling something terrible. "The creature from the black lagoon." Wally said.

The only one missing was the mummy.

"I DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, BUT I KNOW YOU ARE HERE. TO THOSE MYSTERY INC. WANNABES THAT ARE MEDDLING WITH MY PLANS: I COMMAND YOU TO GIVE BACK MY JOURNAL, OR LET ALL OF COOLSVILLE PAY FOR YOUR DISOBIDIANCE." No one moved. The weight of the journal in Dick's bag was more noticeable than before. "MEET MY MONSTERS: MY WEREWOLF, DRACULA AND HIS BRIDES, THE CREEPER , MY GILL-MAN, AND MY GHOSTS." His ghosts had appeared at his cue, from thin looked at the 'Mystery Inc. wannabes' suddenly.

"Split up and look for Grimm." He told them hurriedly. Artemis followed after him, Wally went with Conner, and Megan went with Dick. The duos crept around the crowd, searching for their principal. The Shadow continued, oblivious. "DISOBEY ME, AND DEAL WITH THEM. GIVE ME THAT JOURNAL BY DUSK TONIGHT, OR PAY THE CONSEQUENCES. GIVE. ME. THAT. JOURNAL!" There was a crack and the light exploded, enveloping the room in darkness and raining glass down on Kaldur and Artemis, who were closest to it. The other students began to run again, towards the exits. The six 'mystery inc. wannabes' were swept up into it, pulled by the rushing crowd all the way to the front of the school. Megan texted everyone to meet back at the van, which they did.

Conner was last to arrive a couple minutes afterward, still holding his stoker and jogging towards the van. "Sorry. The ghosts decided to scare the hell out of some poor freshman. I swiped them before they could do any damage though."

Megan stood outside the van, helping Kaldur sanitize the cuts on his hands from the glass that had hit him. Dick was studying the journal in the back of the van. Artemis was sitting on the back bench seat, Wally next to her. He had taken her hair out of her braid and was picking out the fallen glass carefully with some tweezers from the first aid kit. Everyone looked relieved when they saw him.

"We were worried!" Megan told him. She blushed furiously before ducking her head back to bandage up his knuckles.

"Let us go back to Megan's house to change, and then we may plan our next move." Kaldur said. "Thank you, Megan," he added when she finished bandaging his hand. She gave him a small smile, then slid into the middle seat. Kaldur walked around the van and into the driver's seat. Conner got in on Megan's other side. Wally moved over and put the tray of glass he had picked from Artemis's hair in his lap (she had taken the brunt of the falling glass). Dick sat in the spot Wally vacated and Kaldur drove off.

They went back to Megan's house, where they all gathered in the living room. Wally went back to picking glass out of Artemis's hair for her while the others changed out of their costumes.

"And you said chivalry was dead." Wally said, carefully pulling the final bits of glass out of her hair. Artemis looked at him a little uncertainly.

"That's why you're doing this? Chivalry?"

Wally cleared his throat and continued. "N-no. No I'm not." He finished pulling the glass out. "Let's look at your arms."

Artemis shifted so that Wally could get to her arms better. She cast her eyes to her arms, where Wally was gently dabbing a cotton ball soaked in disinfectant. "Thanks."

Wally smiled at her while he put some bandages on the cuts, finishing up. "You're welcome."

"Hate to interrupt your latest romantic moment." A voice came from the doorway and the two jumped back from one another. Dick grinned. "I think you guys should change. We need to plan." The two went back to the rooms they had changed in that morning, switched back to their usual clothing, then went back to the living room where everyone was waiting.

"Let's look at our suspects." Megan said, walking to sit next to Dick on the couch.

"We've got Scott Edwards, curator of the museum. He also happens to own the old mansion, where we found the journal, the book, and all the monsters with their goop and is the descendant of our resident two ghosts." Dick answered her.

"There's old Mrs. Conwright, film studies teacher. She probably knows the most about any movie monster and she was checking out all those weird books on witchcraft." Artemis said, leaning back on the couch next to Wally.

"Count her out; I saw her when we saw The Shadow." Wally said, stretching his arm out on the back of the couch behind Artemis.

"Edwards too." Megan added. "I have a friend who works at the museum. She said she was in a meeting with him when The Shadow showed up at the school."

"That leaves Grimm. Hater of children and borrower of books on monsters." Wally said. "Did anyone see him?" No one said anything, their answers all in the negative.

"But really, what does it matter who the man behind the mask is if we can't stop the monsters? We need to focus on that before anything else."Conner said.

"Conner is right. We need to come up with a plan to defeat those monsters, and then we can deal with The Shadow." Kaldur said. "Let us start with why The Shadow is so desperate for his journal."

Dick held up the journal. "There are strengths and weaknesses of each of the monsters, including the new ones. But that just seems too simple. All these monsters are from the classic Universal monsters list, and all their weakness are the same as in the movies. There's something else to this, I know it."

"So we have the stats, we have a threat, and we have a deadline." Artemis said. "What we need is that book. The second one from the series. We can't just pick the monsters off one by one until midnight. They'd catch on and go hide or something. I have a plan. But I don't think you'll like it."

Artemis was right: no one liked her plan. But it was the only one they had and if they wanted to make the deadline, they'd have to go with it. Still, Kaldur thought up a plan B and that's why they found themselves at the abandoned school (everyone had left after The Shadow's appearance). They didn't have to bother picking the lock; the doors were left wide open.

The school itself was a complete disaster. Loose papers littered the ground and shattered glass was left everywhere. Some doors were cracked completely in half and in one classroom, every desk was broken.

Conner moved the broken desks to block off all the other hallways, so that The Shadow would have to use the gym for his meeting place and Wally used a huge broom from the open supply closet to clear a few paths that lead to each open exit for any quick escapes. Megan and Kaldur went and propped all the doors open, driving stakes down into the ground outside and connecting them to some chains that were normally used to hold the school gates closed on weekends (they were found in a storage closet). They wanted to be sure that if they did need to escape, the ghosts wouldn't be able to slam all the doors shut. Not easily, anyway. Once they were done that, they hurried to help Artemis and Dick. They had taken rock climbing equipment from gym storage and were now suspended in the rafters, attaching various contraptions that would release silver cutlery and salt down on the monsters.

They had bought all the salt the closest grocery store had with Dick's credit card (they received quite a few weird looks), and were using almost all of it. Wally trailed it along all the walls while Conner and Megan worked together to suspend folded canvases full of it above the door. With the pull of a rope, the canvas would fall and empty its contents, completing the circle of salt to trap the ghosts. It would only take someone to break the circle, but it would surprise them long and buy them time to get out of there if anything went wrong.

After a quick hour of work, the group decided it'd be best to leave just in case the monsters showed up early. Dick and Artemis lowered themselves down after making a few final touches, Megan and Conner double checked the salt above the doors, Wally went one more time over the salt along the walls, and Kaldur went through after them, hiding any evidence that they had been there all along.

They got in the van and began to drive again. "Where next?" Kaldur asked from behind the wheel.

Dick pulled something from his backpack. It was a small box, which he opened to reveal about fifteen silver bullets. "I made these last night in my Dad's lab. But I don't have anything to shoot them with."

"I do." Artemis said, looking at everyone else. "Kaldur, go to my building." He did as she said and they were there in five minutes' time. Artemis led them up to her small apartment and opened the door carefully.

"Mom?" She called out. When no one answered, she walked in and waved the others in behind her. "She's probably still at her work dinner. Won't be home for a few hours. Sit if you want." She gestured to two grey couches, old and worn but comfortable looking. They went and sat down while Artemis disappeared down the hallway. She came back a few moments later, holding a large crate.

"We can use these." She put the crate down in front of everyone and opened it, revealing a large quantity of guns. Everyone's eyes widened.

"Where'd you get all these?" Conner asked.

"My dad. He used to love hunting... amongst other things." She said cryptically, pulling out a handgun and checking if it was loaded.

"Where's he now?" Wally asked carefully.

Artemis sighed. "Let's just say he wasn't exactly in the running for world's best dad. My mom kicked him out a year ago."

"I'm sorry." Wally said sincerely.

Artemis shrugged. "Why? Good riddance." They fell into silence. "Dick, give me those bullets. I need to see which guns they'll fit." Dick did as she was told and handed them over. She examined them then pulled out three small handguns and put five in each.

"Do any of you actually know how to shoot a gun?" Artemis asked. Conner nodded, as did Kaldur. She handed each a gun and double checked they knew where the safety was. She tucked her own gun in the back of her jeans then stood up straight, covering it with the back of her shirt as Wally lifted his hockey bag onto the couch and unzipped it. He handed out all the weapons to everyone then put the bag on the floor so anyone who wanted to could sit, but no one did.

"What now?" Megan asked. Kaldur wandered over to the window.

"The sun will be setting soon. I think it is time." They all exchanged solemn looks.

Artemis and Wally walked along the sidewalk quickly past the old mansion. They were headed back for one last trip to the library with the leather bound journal, moving at a rapid pace to beat the sunset. Artemis breathed out her mouth, her breath swirling in front of her. Wally's feet hit the pavement harder than hers; making a comfortable, steady sound. Behind them, the gate creaked and careful footsteps could be heard.

"Wally?" Artemis whispered.

"I know." He answered quietly. His arm brushed hers as they moved a little closer.

"On three?"

"Ready when you are."

"One...two...three!" They whipped around. But Dracula was much closer than they had thought. He smiled.

"Harker, we meet again." His heavily accented voice purred. Quick as lightning, he swung the back of his arm at Artemis, knocking her down to the pavement. She hit it hard, the wind getting knocked out of her. Before Artemis had even hit the pavement, he had grabbed Wally by his shirt, lifting him up and throwing him back into the mansion's iron gate. Artemis pushed herself up onto her elbows and turned over as quick as her body would allow. She saw Wally hit the gate hard and slide down. He met her eyes with half closed lids that fluttered shut. She waited until they shut, then looked up at the vampire looming over her, still smiling. She scooted back as quickly as she could as the vampire merely walked after her, showing her his pointed teeth.

"Do not worry, Mina. This will not hurt. Much."

Wally's neck was sore.

He reflected on that as he walked next to Artemis. His new sharp teeth felt large and awkward in his mouth and he was almost worried they would scrape the insides of his lips raw. Wally snuck a glance over at Artemis, whose arm brushed his as they walked. She was rubbing her own sore neck and he felt another stab of guilt. If only he had been fast enough...

There was only one place to go now. They were walking to the school, and the sun was almost entirely set behind them. Dusk was upon them.

They reached the school in a few minutes time and walked through the path Dick had swept earlier that day, and into the gym. As promised, The Shadow and a few of his monsters were waiting: the werewolf and Dracula's brides. The brides all stood draped on The Shadow, stroking his arms and playing with his hood. One sat on his lap, whispering into his ear. Wally saw Artemis wrinkle her nose out of the corner of his eye.

The Shadow seemed to be too busy to notice that Wally and Artemis had even entered the room, but the wolfman growled lowly and he looked up. He pushed the bride who had seated herself in his lap off and stood to walk towards them.

"Where is my journal?!" His voice boomed deeply. Artemis and Wally shared a glance out of the corners of their eyes. Artemis slipped the backpack off her shoulders.

"We have it." She pretended to look around. "Where is master?" She asked, curious.

"I am your master!" The Shadow shouted at them. He seemed to only have one volume.

Artemis smiled, showing off her own pointed teeth. "No, you aren't. Where is Dracula? He changed me." She smiled a little wider, her eyes fierce. The Shadow seemed to inch back. "My name is Mina now. Where is my husband to be?"

Wally smiled too. "I tried to stop him. I tried to save her. But he was too fast. He changed me too." His pearly white fangs caused The Shadow to take another step back.

"But he wasn't...I commanded him not to..."

Artemis stepped forward. "Don't worry, because now we get to live forever." She paused. "He looks so delicious. Doesn't he, Harker?"

Wally followed. "Careful, Mina. Remember what master said." The brides approached them, reaching Artemis first. One grabbed some of her hair and ran her fingers through it and twirled it around her fingers while another stroked her face. The last stood in front of her, examining her face closely. She leaned in and turned her head curiously, staring straight at Artemis's eyes. Wally saw Artemis's spine go rigid.

"Girls, come. You may play with her later. For now, I want my book." The Shadow said. The girls left Artemis with curious looks and went back to The Shadow, watching the teens closely. Wally felt Artemis let go of a silent breath.

"We have your book." Wally said. He took the backpack from the trembling Artemis (it was very discreet – he could tell she was trying to suppress it.) "But we want something for it. Give us your book on raising the dead."

"Give me the journal and we will talk." The Shadow said. Wally and Artemis didn't have time to argue, because the doors slammed open. Dracula himself walked in with a large, nasty gash on his head where Megan had hit him with the bat.

Artemis's plan was this: Wally and Artemis (It was originally supposed to just be her but everyone had argued that she wouldn't be going anywhere alone.) had purposely walked in front of the old mansion, luring Dracula out. He had been faster than they had anticipated, knocking out Wally for a few minutes and giving both of them slight whiplash on their necks, but Megan had come up behind him with the others quick enough. She hit him hard with the bat they had covered in garlic oil and braided garlic flowers. He was easily knocked out from that, and Artemis and Wally attached their new ceramic vampire teeth to their K-9s and fake neck wounds while the others tied him up with garlic-oiled chains and crucifixes on strings. They loaded him into the van and drove him to a secure location so that the plan could go off flawlessly. Obviously, he got out somehow and overpowered them, giving them quite a large flaw in the plan.

Megan, Conner, and Kaldur were led in between Dracula and his ghosts.

"What is the meaning of this?!" The Shadow demanded. "Dracula! I told you not to turn anyone!"

"But master, I did not." He said confused. "These teens, they attacked me. I easily beat them, of course." The Shadow heard his words and looked at Wally and Artemis.

Artemis did the first thing she thought of. She lunged at The Shadow and hissed as loud as she could, baring her fake teeth. He fell back instinctively.

"PLAN B!" Kaldur shouted. From high above in the rafters, Dick pulled the rope to release the salt above the doors and completed the circle. He lowered himself down, swinging past the bleachers and snatching the book from the bleachers before jumping down and following after the others, who were already running to the doors. The Shadow screeched angrily.

They had a few moments, which was all they needed. The teens ran to the van, which was parked outside and ready to go. Everyone piled in the back, except Kaldur, who stepped hard on the gas. The van screeched away just as the monsters made it out of the school. Conner slammed the side door shut just as The Shadow yelled.

"GET ME THAT BOOK, IF YOU HAVE TO KILL THEM!"

"Where do we go?!" Megan asked, inadvertently yelling.

"We can't go home! We'll just put our families in danger!" Wally responded.

"I know a place. Turn left here, Kaldur," Dick said, a little more calmly. He leapt over the seat and gave Kaldur instructions on how to get to their destination. Everyone checked repeatedly to see if they were being followed. As far as they could tell, they weren't.

Artemis and Wally pulled out their fake teeth and the fake bite wounds on their necks, discarding them on the floor.

Wally picked up the large tome they had stolen and began to flip through it. Megan took the journal out of the backpack and looked at it curiously.

"There must be something in this journal that's important. Otherwise, why would he want it so badly?" She said, flipping through the pages. The van began to bounce along violently, telling everyone the road had gone from pavement to dirt.

"Here. I found it." Wally said, pointing to a page. "It's called The Sun's Kiss. It says it will destroy the monsters the moment it touches them. The formula doesn't look too complicated. I bet I could brew it." The road changed from pavement to dirt and they were now bumping along somewhat violently.

"I can help. I'm pretty good at Chem. How different could it be?" Artemis volunteered as she examined the book over Wally's shoulder. The van slowed to a stop.

"We're here." Dick announced. Everyone turned their attention to the front window to see where they had stopped. They were in the middle of an evergreen forest somewhere. The van was parked on something that would generously be called a dirt road and to their left there was a large black lake. Over the lake loomed a naked tree, a single fat limb reached over the water like a large finger. Someone had hung a tire swing to it, and it swung softly in the wind.

"There's the old clubhouse." Dick said nostalgically. Wally whistled lowly.

"It's still standing?" No one else would've noticed it if the boys hadn't said anything. It was high up in the branches of a tall evergreen tree, so large it stretched out to other trees. It was mostly hidden by branches, but what could be seen was painted a dark grey, camouflaging it in the night near perfectly. Despite Wally's remark, it looked like it was still in pretty decent shape.

Everyone got out of the van. Dick and Wally led them to a tree that someone had nailed a makeshift ladder into. Wally led them up, followed by Conner, Megan, Artemis, Kaldur, then Dick. Once everyone had climbed in through a trap door on the floor, Wally shut it and Dick went to start up an old generator that sat in the corner. He pulled once, twice on the cord. It let out a groaning noise then the light bulbs flickered to life.

"We have a heater too, but it's nice enough to leave it off." Dick explained (bragged). He was right though, with the walls of the clubhouse blocking out the wind it was actually pretty decent inside.

If the outside of the tree house was impressive, then the inside was amazing. The place was huge, at least fifteen feet in each wall. One wall was covered almost entirely in old computer screens, another had a lab bench and various cabinets. The other two were more normal, with a table and chairs and an old radio on the window sill; some hammocks rested along the walls, looking old and comfortable.

"What is this place?" Megan asked.

"We call it the Cave." Wally answered. "We used to come here all the time, but stopped after freshmen year. Not sure why, though." Meanwhile, Dick had started up his computers. The screens flickered, but turned on.

Kaldur assumed his position of leader quickly enough. "Artemis, Wally, start on that potion. Megan, Conner, study the journal, I want to know of anything that looks strange or out of place. Dick, look up those new monsters. I will look through this first book again for anything we've missed." Everyone started off to their assumed jobs.

Megan and Conner huddled together around the journal, reading it together. Dick started his search, his fingers a blur across the keyboards. Kaldur took a seat at the table and calmly searched through the book. Artemis and Wally shared the long stool at the lab bench and read through the ingredients.

"We're lucky; I have most of this stuff." Wally said. He began to pull out various chemicals from the cabinets.

Artemis snorted. "Yeah, lucky. Where exactly are we supposed to get more Moon's Breath?"

"I've got some." Dick pulled a jar out of his bag and tossed it to Wally. Artemis rolled her eyes.

"What about 'a symbol of innocence'? Or 'a reflection of one's self'?"

"I've got a butterfly hair clip." Megan volunteered.

"That should work." Wally said. She tossed it to him.

"There's a mirror here." Conner said, tossing that too. Wally dropped it in.

"I don't think it meant it literally." Wally shrugged.

They all worked in silence after that, with the occasional mumble between Wally and Artemis. Twenty minutes later, the duo stood.

"It's done, but it needs to sit on the Bunsen burner for a bit." Artemis told them. "I'm going to go get some fresh air."

"Yeah, me too." Wally said hurriedly, following her to the trapdoor. They both went out, shutting the door behind them. Dick chuckled.

"Wally's so creet." He said.

"Creet?" Kaldur asked.

"You know, like discreet but without the 'dis'." He shook his head at him and went back to work.

Across the room, Megan and Conner sat hunched over the book.

"Look at this. I think it says J.D.N. What do you think that is?" Megan asked as she pointed to the three letters scratched into the soft leather cover.

"Initials, maybe? Megan flipped to the first page. Finding nothing, she about to turn the page when Conner took her wrist gently and held it still.

"Wait. Look at these pages. Don't they look a bit thick to you?" Megan looked a bit closer.

"You're right." She said. Conner flushed. "Here, use this." She handed him a nail file from her purse and Conner stuck it between the pages. He pried them apart carefully, letting them fall away. It was all very anticlimactic. There was a small key between the pages, with only a crudely engraved "MASTER" as its only explanation. Megan lifted it up between her slender fingers.

She laughed lightly at it. "I like how he self labels his keys in case they get lost." Conner laughed at that. "This must be what he wants so badly. What do you think it's for?"

Conner shook his head, taking it from her to examine it himself. "Not sure, but it must be pretty important to go through all this trouble."

Outside, Artemis had climbed into the back of the van and was digging through the hockey bag, which she had filled with other weapons that they could use that they gathered from her apartment. Wally was standing in front of the lake, skipping stones. He counted each skip. He was a little rusty and was only getting three or four skips each time. He used to be really good at it, but hadn't done it in years.

Artemis slammed the door of the van and he looked up at her. She was watching his last stone bounce across the water, then sink.

"How do you do that?" She asked.

Wally picked up a stone and threw it up, catching it with the same hand. "It's easy. Just get a flat rock, like this one. Then you bend a little like this, and throw it out. It's all really in the wrist." He demonstrated while Artemis studied him. The rock bounced three times.

"Simple enough." Artemis said. She picked up her own stone and mimicked his posture. Then she threw it. It ended up just hitting the water and sinking. She glared at it then picked up another stone.

"It's all in the wrist, like this." Wally coached then demonstrated. Artemis tried again, with the same result.

Wally went up behind her after she picked up another rock. "You have to get low, like this." He pressed gently on her shoulder and she bent her knees. He hesitantly put his other hand on her wrist and flicked it with her, the stone jumping six times before it sank. Artemis smirked victoriously. She grabbed another stone, and threw it herself. It skipped a few times and Wally picked up another pebble, grinning at her. He threw it, and it skipped nine times before it hit something that wasn't water. Artemis and Wally took a step back as the monster approached them.

"GILL-MAN!" Wally yelled. The others up in the clubhouse looked out to see the monster advancing on them. Kaldur and Dick ran to the Sun's Kiss, emptying the orange liquid into a large bottle; the kind you fill up with water at the grocery store for water coolers.

Meanwhile, Artemis had taken out her gun. Her silver bullets were in her pocket, her gun filled with regular bullets. She shot at it, forcing the monster to back into the water, hissing all the way. The others climbed down from the tree house; Conner lowered down the bottle on a rope, then joined them. Everyone got in the van except Artemis. She ran out of bullets, cursed, and then did the first thing she thought of with a monster quickly advancing on her and her friends. She chucked the gun, hitting the creature from the black lagoon in the forehead. It did nothing but make him angrier and maybe slow him down slightly.

She got into the back of the van and they shot off once again. Conner and Dick closed the doors as they moved.

"What do we do now?!" Conner asked, watching out the front window.

"We need to get back to the school. That is the only place we will be able to get them all in one place. There is less than an hour until midnight. Our final stand is now." Everyone let Kaldur's words sink in for a moment.

"The book says the potion needs to "rain down upon the creatures." How are we going to do that?" Artemis asked.

"We could use the fire sprinklers." Dick said. "All we'd need is to pour it in the pipes in the storage room." He pulled out some blueprints of the school. "I printed these out in the clubhouse. There's fire alarms all over the school, but we won't be able to get to almost any of them because we blocked off the halls."

"Almost any of them?" Megan asked tentatively.

"There's one in the gym."

"Of course it's in the gym." Artemis said sarcastically.

Dick continued. "The room for the sprinklers is right next to the front door so if there's a fire, firefighters can access it easily. All we have to do is pour it in and give it some time. Then we pull the fire alarm and bam: no more monsters."

"Sounds easy enough." Wally said hopefully.

Everyone exchanged nervous glances.

Suddenly, the car lurched forward, as if it had been rear-ended.

"We have company." Kaldur said, stepping on the gas. Everyone looked out the side mirrors to see four bats, two ghosts, a werewolf running on all fours, and the Creeper and the Gill-man driving what looked to be a lawn mower.

"Is that a lawn mower?" Artemis asked. Kaldur turned sharply, and everyone in the back got thrown into the side.

"Probably not the time, Artemis." Dick said as they hit another sharp turn.

"Get ready to move, everyone. We are almost at the school." Kaldur warned everyone. Wally and Conner lifted the jug together. The van screeched to a stop, sliding into the curb and hitting its tires on the curb. The teens jumped out and bolted into the school. The storage room was right where Dick had told them, and they emptied the contents quickly. They finished just in time too. They only just barely had time to get out and run down the hallway as the monsters burst in, now joined by The Shadow.

The teens, led by Kaldur, ran into the gym. What they didn't expect was for the ghosts to come through the walls opposite the entrance, And just like that, they were surrounded.

"We need to give the sprinklers time to get ready. Then we need to pull the switch." Dick told them quietly, gesturing his chin in the back corner of the gym where everyone could see a little red box mounted on the wall.

The teens stood in a circle, facing outwards. Conner took out the cane, Megan took out the fire stoker. Kaldur took out his gun and Dick picked up a large pipe from the ground. Artemis took out the bat they had painted in garlic oil and Wally pulled out a wooden stake.

"Everyone ready?" Kaldur asked. They all muttered uncertain agreements. "Good luck." They all took that as their cue. Megan approached the ghosts, Conner the werewolf, Kaldur the Gill-man, Dick the Creeper, and Artemis and Wally teamed up to take on Dracula and his brides.

The ghosts closed in on Megan, cackling. She bit the inside of her cheek. She just needed them to get a little closer. She swung, hitting one ghost and causing it to shoot back. The second ghost, however, knocked her down. She scooted back until she felt the rough grains of salt beneath her hands from earlier. She picked some up and flung it at the ghost, getting it in the face. She got back to her feet.

Conner and the werewolf circled each other, the wolfman alternating between all four and its two back legs. It sniffed at him, then growled. It jumped, but Conner was ready. He struck it with the silver end of the cane, and it fell back. It jumped at him again, pinning him down. Conner struggled to push it off, the only thing keeping its snapping jaws off his face was the cane, holding its neck back.

"Get off him!" A feminine voice yelled. The wolfman screeched and fell off cradling its left ear. Megan helped Conner to his feet as the ghosts descended upon them and the werewolf stood up, angry.

"Remember, left ear." She reminded him, holding up the cane.

Dick jumped away from the (surprisingly fast) Creeper. He dropped to his knee and swept the Creeper's feet out from under him. It fell and Dick scrambled back up. The Creeper took his ankle and yanked it, dragging him back down. Dick kicked the Creeper in the face and used his gymnastics skills to cartwheel backwards on one hand. He stood carefully and watched the Creeper scramble to his feet.

The Gill-man shot some kind of green pus at Kaldur, but he leapt out of the way in time to avoid it. Kaldur shot once, twice, getting the creature from the black lagoon in the foot but it was incredibly agile and didn't seem to find much difficulty in dodging Kaldur. The Gill-man hit the ground, but recovered quickly. It snatched up a large piece of broken glass and stood, sending Kaldur an extremely grotesque smile.

They circled each other and Kaldur tried to remember what the journal said about the Gill-man. It was supposed to be agile but not fast. Kaldur ducked away as the Gill-man lunged and he slid past him, across the broken glass and other debris from earlier. Kaldur made up his mind and shot twice in quick succession, hitting him with the second bullet. He almost smiled; so that's how you beat him.

Dracula and his brides advanced on Wally and Artemis, who waited for them to come closer. Dracula swiped out, but they were ready. They dropped together and knocked him over then scrambled to their feet to meet the brides, who had already started their attack.

"I think he's still bitter over our little trick." Artemis said, swinging the bat at the blonde bride. Wally managed a smile as he knocked down two bats flying at him.

"Five minutes to midnight!" The Shadow squealed gleefully from his spot on the bleachers.

"Thanks!" Dick yelled. It had been hard to check his watch when keeping the Creeper busy. He dodged the monster, slipping between his legs. Dick stood quickly and bolted down the gym, faster than he'd ever run before. He reached the fire alarm and poised his fingers on the switch.

Everyone froze, even the monsters, to watch.

"What are you doing?!" The Shadow sounded worried. Dick grinned.

"Feeling the aster." He pulled the switch and an alarm blared through the school. For a single scary moment, it didn't look like the sprinklers were going to work. But then orange liquid began to pour down on them and the monsters began to scream.

It was even worse than the mummy's screams. There was simply no way to describe it but terrible in the rawest of definitions. The six covered their ears from the shrill horrible sound. The Shadow's voice rang out in anguish. Wherever the Sun's Kiss hit the monsters, bloody red burn marks appeared until they were completely covered in burns. Finally, they stopped screaming.

Conner and Kaldur were the first to recover and managed to run and grab The Shadow before he could make a break for it. Artemis tied him up with some rope that she cut off from the climbing cable she had used earlier. All that was left of the monsters were a few piles of Moon's Breath. The teens poured salt into that, just in case anyone got any ideas about using it.

The authorities and the fire department arrived a minute or so later to find the cloaked figure that had terrorized the high school tied to the bleachers. The six teenagers stood together, their eyes wide from adrenaline.

"Finally. We waited for you guys for our big unmasking." Artemis said. The Shadow still wore his mask. His shoulders were hunched with defeat.

The confused cops and firefighters watched as Dick put his hand on the hood of The Shadow.

"Gentlemen and ladies, I present to you your resident ghost raiser, monster creator, and general shit disturber." He pulled up the hood and took off the mask to reveal a large, bushy mustache. "Mr. Jack Neil, our very own janitor."

"Wait. It's not Grimm?" Megan asked confusedly. Only Dick and Kaldur looked unsurprised by the results. As if on cue, Grimm burst into the gym with McNally and Conwright. The unlikely trio all wore nightclothes (in McNally's case, slippers too).

"The cops called us." McNally explained to the confused teens.

Grimm had burst in just in time to hear Megan. He looked almost hurt, but mostly angry. But then again, Grimm always looked angry. "You thought it was me?!" Megan looked at her shoes. Wally shrugged.

"We thought you needed a scapegoat." Artemis said cryptically. Dick continued before he could ask what that meant.

"Our first clue was the cloak. When Artemis hit you with the powder from the fire extinguisher and you didn't go crazy like your ghosts that told us you were human. Then Megan and Conner found your cloak and it smelled like cleaning products. At the time, we all assumed that just meant that you tried to get the stain out. But the more I thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. The stain would be gone if you, a janitor, tried to wash it out. That led me to the conclusion that whoever had worn the cloak was around cleaning products often enough to smell like them or at least have them on their skin to rub off into their clothing.

"The next clue was when he showed up at the school. Artemis and Wally had seen him about ten minutes before in the library but after that he went missing. I called my friend Barbara and asked her if she had heard of anything that called the janitor to the library. She hadn't. He had no reason to be there unless he was there to do something personal. Say change into his cloak to go and scare the crap out of the student body?"

Kaldur continued for him. "Our final two clues were also our most solid. The first was a key we found in his journal." Kaldur took the key out of his pocket and showed it to the officers. "It has the word 'master' engraved on it. At first, we all thought he had simply written master on it because that was how he addressed himself. But upon closer examination we realized it was a master key. Who would have a master key? The janitor, of course.

"Our last clue simply confirmed our suspicions." Dick handed Kaldur the journal he had retrieved from goodness knows where. "The initials carved into the front of this book: J.D.N. Jack Donald Neil."

"But why? Why would he want to make those monsters and hurt all those people?" McNally asked from behind Grimm.

"But he didn't want to hurt us. When he thought Dracula had attacked us, he was worried." Artemis interjected. Dick nodded.

"Yeah, we aren't entirely sure why he did it." Dick said a bit uncomfortably, as if he didn't like admitting he didn't know something.

"I wanted to impress the most beautiful woman in the world!" Neil exclaimed angrily. "Miss Conwright loves movie monsters!" Everyone froze.

"Really? You did this for me?" Conwright asked. "No one's ever taken my love for monsters seriously before!"

"...What?" Wally asked for everyone. They all watched as Conwright went and hugged the still-tied-up janitor. The cops detangled them and handcuffed Neil.

"That's the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me!" Conwright exclaimed. Everyone still looked confused about that.

"I would've gotten away with it too! If it weren't for these meddling kids..." Mr. Neil said angrily. Conwright hugged him again.

"Monsters I get. Humans?" Conner shook his head. A couple cops were about to drag the janitor away when Conner thought of something.

"One more question. What happened to your mummy? The one we set on fire?"

Neil looked confused. "Mummy? What mummy? I never made a mummy." The cops dragged him out of the gym. The teens all looked at each other.

"Never made a mummy?" Dick asked.

"Then what the hell did you set on fire in the mansion?" Artemis asked.

"We'll get your statements now." A cop said, cutting them off.

"Maybe we should just let it go." Megan said wisely. "For now, at least." After that, they all gave their statements together, leaving out details such as their illegal breaking and entering and the whole sneaking into the closed museum thing. Also the slight destruction of school property. And the firing of firearms without a licence. And the less than legal lab activities in the clubhouse. But otherwise, they were completely honest.

It took nearly an hour to give their statements and the adrenaline had worn off by the time they reached the end.

"One last question. These books that had all those monster making instructions. Where exactly are they?" The cop asked. Everyone exchanged glances, thinking about the books that lay hidden under the seats in the vans.

"Somewhere safe." Kaldur answered. The police officer wrote that down.

The cops called their parents and everyone waited outside for their rides. (Nobody really wanted to drive the van home in their half-awake state.) They seated themselves on the front steps while cops milled in and out of the school, ducking over the crime scene tape that ran across the doors.

"Some Halloween huh?" Dick said after a few minutes of silence.

"I'm pretty sure that's the understatement of the year." Artemis said. Everyone laughed quietly. Kaldur was sitting on the top step about a foot away from Dick. Megan's head had fallen on Conner's shoulder and Wally and Artemis's fingers had entwined between them (although Artemis would vehemently deny later that she ever held hands.)

"There's my ride." Dick said, pointing to a fancy black car.

"And mine." Megan said as she pointed to a dark red car.

"There is mine." Kaldur said.

"There's my mom." Wally said.

"And my dad." Conner said.

"I'm not entirely sure how I'll get home. My mom can't drive." Artemis admitted. Simultaneously, everyone offered to give her a ride home. But she waved it off with a curious look. A dark blue SUV had just pulled up, a young woman with dark black hair sat behind the wheel. "Looks like my sister came."

"Well...see you guys Monday?" Conner asked a little nervously. Everyone nodded, slowly at first but more confidently once they saw everyone else was agreeing with them.

"You know, I was thinking, and we really aren't half bad at this mystery stuff. What would you guys say to maybe making this a regular thing?" Wally asked.

"Risk our lives on a weekly basis in order to bring justice to those who deserve it?" Artemis shrugged, "Why not?"

"Well when you put it like that, how could we resist?" Megan said good-naturedly.

"We're going to need a name." Kaldur said.

"How about...Mystery Six?" Dick offered. Everyone seemed to consider it.

"That's not half bad." Conner said.

Artemis said with a smile. "Alright, Mystery Six. How about we meet tomorrow at the clubhouse?" Everyone voiced their agreement.

"Good night, everyone." Megan said, raising her hand goodbye. She gave Conner a quick peck on the check before bolting. Dick, Kaldur, and Conner all said their goodbyes as well (Conner with a smile and pink cheeks) until only Wally and Artemis were left.

"So..." Wally said with his hands in his pockets.

"Come here, you idiot." Artemis said. She put her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him down. She kissed him hard on the lips but was interrupted when someone honked their car horn. The teens looked over Artemis's shoulder to see the black haired woman grinning in the car, tapping her wrist as if telling them time was up.

"See you tomorrow." Artemis said with an embarrassed smile. Wally leaned down and pecked her once more on the lips before she ran off to get in the car. Wally grinned after her and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He whistled as he walked to his ride, thinking about all the mysteries to come. He whistled while he walked, thinking that this was only just the beginning.

Wooo! Okay so I had so so so much fun with this one. Like I said, Halloween is my favourite holiday and I loved doing all the research on the movies and the weakness and stuff for this. I also grew up with Scooby Doo so it was great to do a story influenced by it. I really hope you guys enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Just a side note about the title: the original title for 'Scooby Doo, Where Are You?' was supposed to be 'Mystery Five' so I thought I'd a take fun spin on it. I am not going to say there will for sure be sequels to this but I love the ideas behind this so much that I won't rule them out either.

Please review!

-RoyalVictory