by Grimm, Danny and Sonhaven
As Edulcore Cicciotto walked back into the party, a voice caught his attention.
"Ed!" It was Ameristar.
"Yes, Jackie, what can I do for you?" he replied nonchalantly.
She grabbed his arm and pulled him over. "What is your problem tonight? You know this is the first time Crasher has been out since... since the incident, and yet you're not making this easier for her a bit."
"Jackie, I..." he started, only to be drowned out by a very loud voice.
"Comrade Jackie..."
"Oh, God, it's Blackwulf again," Ameristar said. "Kiss me, Ed."
"What?"
"Just do it! Quick!" Before the startled Edulcore could respond, Jackie pulled him to her and kissed him full on the lips.
"Comrade Jackie, where are you hiding at?" Blackwulf said, walking around the party. "Is being midnight, time for celebrating..." Blackwulf wandered by the two, completely missing them.
"So... you're a dragon?"
"Sort of..."
Danny Hearn and Drake Marshall were in the Fish Factory's kitchen, Danny leaning against a counter top and Drake sitting in a kitchen chair a few feet away. Danny looked up Drake up and down, contemplating the man.
"That entrance you pulled outside was... extravagant. You should watch that. You don't want to scare people," Danny said.
"Sorry about that. Hard to avoid when he's... you know... that big."
"And you say his name is Drax?"
"Yeah. He kinda... shares my body. It's weird. I have his voice in my head all the time. Guess that must be hard to imagine, huh?"
Danny grinned. "You'd be surprised," he said. "But hell, there'll be time for this sort of talk tomorrow. It's just gone midnight, and you know what that means," Danny said, smiling.
Drake raised an eyebrow. "Uh... You don't want to kiss me, do you?"
"I just meant it was time to party," Danny replied, taken aback.
"Oh."
They had paused and stood up to rejoin the party when Tayden walked into the kitchen with a very persistent young lady in tow.
"Come on! One more time! ... At least take my number!" The green-skinned girl was jumping up and down like a kid.
Tayden look annoyed and was about to speak when he saw Danny. He then smiled and said, "Y'know... if you want to talk about true heroic ability... true meta skill... true undaunted courage... you need to talk to Danny. He's our leader and, well, to be honest..." Tayden walked over to Danny and put his arm around him and said, "...the man taught me everything I know."
Danny looked bewildered and suspicious. "You all right, Tayden?"
"He taught you EVERYTHING?" the beautiful green girl said as she raised an eyebrow.
"Everything," Tayden spoke back with a similar devilish expression.
The green-skinned girl grabbed Danny's hand, flashed him her best bedroom eyes, and said, "You wanna take a walk on the beach?"
Danny, being the fearless, respectable hero he was, smiled and said, "Gentlemen, I'll leave you to your own... activities, while I tend to mine."
They strolled out the door.
Tayden fell onto a chair. "Finally!" Looking at Drake, he said, "Let me give you some advice. Don't ever make anyone too happy. So, you're a meta like everyone else?"
Drake looked at Tayden. "Yeah, sorta... I got an interdimensional dragon living in my body. What about you?"
Tayden casually responded, "No... I'm an angel. Got turned into a human."
"Cool, cool," Drake said with no surprise in his voice.
After a short but thick moment of silence, Tayden stood up. "Well, how about a drink?"
In his room, Grimm stared into the mirror he had salvaged and hung in his makeshift room in their temporary Fish Factory headquarters. He was wearing only a gray T-shirt and a ratty pair of blue jeans. He stared at his face and concentrated.
I've done this twice now... once in the Castle, and again on Halloween. Let's see if I can manage it again, this time without any help.
Grimm continued to stare at his reflection for several moments, not saying a word, all of his attention devoted to one thing.
Suddenly, muscles began to appear on that area of his face that had been only bone. The muscles began to weave together and reknit themselves, soon to be covered by a pale layer of skin. A tongue appeared, followed by a pair of eyes. Soon, Grimm's entire face appeared, normal looking except for the slight discoloration that matched the rest of his skin tone.
He smiled the first real smile he could remember in many months. A real smile, and not some skull-faced parody.
Wait until the others see this; they're gonna flip out! This is gonna be some party. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. "Hang on," he said, noting his voice seemed to sound exactly the same.
Probably Wulf here with the drinks. He opened the door to find a dark-haired girl with pale skin and large brown eyes staring at him. She had an hourglass figure and wore a very short black dress with thigh-high black leather boots.
"Hi," she said, smiling. "Wulf sent me. Said you probably wouldn't come to the party and would hide here in your room."
Grimm smiled back. "You wanna come in?"
"Sure," she said, pulling a bottle of greenish liquid out of her purse.
Forget the party, Grimm thought to himself, closing and locking the door behind the girl.