“Easy… does it!” Ryu declared, Cleo opening the door to find the shorter boy having put his supposed best friend in a headlock strong enough to see Matt’s eyes water. More horrifying than that, however, was the sight of Ryu pulling Matt’s ‘face’ off like a rubbery halloween mask, the pale flesh pulled off to reveal a small red, bald head and two horns. The rest of the disguise came undone as a result, deflating at the fringes and falling off to reveal that the real Matt was actually a whole foot shorter than even Ryu, the imp struggling in the smiling teen’s grasp as Ryu declared mirthfully, “Haha! I knew it! I knew you were the one making everyone act weird! It had to have been either you or that girl with the stupid haircut…”

It was only after celebrating his success did Ryu notice that someone else had joined them in the timezone, turning his head to find Cleo standing at the door pen in hand. He smiled up at her and declared, “Oh, hey! Speak of the devil. Guess since you can move around in here, you’re a paranormal too, huh?”

Cleo brought her pen forward, holding it like the hilt of a sword as a faint but angry, purple telekinetic aura poured off of her and she asked venomously, “What… did you just say?”

“I said I guess you’re paranormal t-”

Ryu never got to finish his answer thanks to something incredibly hard and fast striking him in the face and sending him into the back of the closet where he fell into an awaiting mop bucket. The series of mops and brooms that fell on him did the boy’s image no favors, Cleo huffing as she placed her hands on her hips with her left hand holding onto the white bandaged hilt of a katana. Faster than one could blink, the girl’s pen had turned into a sheathed sword, the violet scabbard emanating a pink hue thanks to the waves of telekinetic energy coming off of it.

The newly freed Matt barely noted any of this, however, the puny goblin approaching the esper and extending a red, clawed hand toward her as he declared, “My darling Cleo… I knew you were different from the rest of the riff-raff! You came to save me when no one else could! Come, take my hand and we can start our dance right now! I’ll get the rest of the peons to start setting up right away!”

The scabbard struck a male face for the second time that day, spittle trailing in the wake of the monster’s body as Cleo forced the goblin out of the supply closet with a backward swing, the red creature bouncing twice on the smooth floor before coming to a slow, spinning stop. Unimpressed with either of her opponents, the girl fetched a leather holder from her opposite blazer pocket and revealed a golden, round badge with “T.P.P.” indented into the metal.

“Nice try loser but those powers aren’t gonna help you one bit against me. I’m an esper from The Paranormal Patrol and it’s gonna take more than a goblin and some lil weirdo to get the best of me.”

The lil weirdo in question was particularly disappointing. Matt at least had some psychic abilities but Ryu? The ability to overpower a goblin wasn’t really all that impressive but it did leave open the question of what was actually paranormal about him that allowed the runt access to the timezone, Cleo wondering if he also had a human disguise on or if he was maybe just an aware teenager. Definitely not a magic user or an esper like her, both requiring a degree of brainpower she doubted Ryu had.

In any case, above goblin strength and some immunity to mind alteration couldn’t have been the big bad her commander had pointed out to her. She needed to get these two losers tied up and continue her search before the real threat got away.

“Youch…” A grumble came from inside the supply closet, the esper spinning around in surprise to find the short teen picking himself out of the mop bucket and holding his head as he said with a half smile, “Geez… and I was just about to complain about how I’d wasted all that time sneaking into this school and being buddy-buddy with the red guy just to win without a fight… But then some strong weirdo shows up, nice!”

Cleo blinked, readying her still sheathed sword and aiming it at the teen as he approached. The girl was sweating slightly as she stepped back and mumbled, “He’s… standing up already? He doesn’t even look hurt… No way is he even part human after tanking a hit like that.”

Ryu stopped his approach suddenly, looking surprised for a moment before grinning again and smiling as he pointed a thumb at himself and declared, “‘course I’m not human! I’m a kaiju!”

A fearful sweat ran down Cleo’s back, rocked to her core by the statement. Both the teens were so focused on each other, neither had noticed Matt slip away.

‘Bastards! Bastards, bastards, bastards!’ Matt thought as his stubby legs carried him as fast as they could down the hallway, sporting a welt on his cheek and several loose teeth in his mouth. ‘Weeks of hard work almost thrown right out the window by two nobodies!’ Matt turned a corner, looking desperately for something to disguise himself with so that he could exit the timezone. Normally he wouldn’t need to go to such lengths, The Line doing most of the heavy lifting when it came to hiding paranormal creatures in plain sight but it could only protect goblins like him from discovery for so long, especially after he’d created a specific human persona to protect himself from discovery.

The Line may very well have created a human facsimile that others would see him as once he got far enough away from Ryu and Cleo but there was little to no chance it would have humans see him as their ‘good friend’ Matt. If they didn’t and he tried to use his manipulative powers on them there was a good chance that The Line would just kick him back into the timezone. If he only had something to hide his face with.

‘And who the hell are The Paranormal Patrol anyways?! Probably some government agency… I haven’t even done anything but they’re sending people after me?! Grrr… I wanted to wait longer before trying but I’ll have to risk it. If I beat the shit out of one of their little go-getters maybe they’ll get the message and back off!’

Matt had a plan, all that was left was to find a way to enact it. As luck would have it, his deciding on a course of action coincided with the goblin coming to a stop in front of the drama club’s door.

It took some jimmying and grunting but soon enough the cheap lock broke and Matt was allowed access. Snapping on a plastic centurion-like mask also snapped Matt back to the regular world, the red, pudgy goblin only having the face covering on but he was in too much of a rush to experiment with any further costuming. He’d just need to hope that his weeks of groundwork would bear fruit and exiting the classroom with its suddenly fixed door gave the creature the chance to do just that.

Most of the student body had gone home but those with club activities and sports practices were still hanging about, chief among the late stayers was Davie: Tall, broad, blonde-haired, blue-eyed and popular. An excellent target to test the disguise on.

“Davie, hey!” Matt approached, waving the football player down as he chatted with friends, the jock looking over and then down. The human’s brain took a few moments to process the mental image of Matt the Gnatt in what he saw as a full, very impressive set of ancient, Romanesque armor but once it did the big teen was all smiles.

“Hey Matt! Nice style, going to a costume party or just trying something new?” Davie asked and those he’d been talking to parroted the compliments, Matt waving them all off impatiently.

“Yes, yes. Something like that. Now Davie, I need a favor from you…”

“Sure man, anything you need I’m your guy!”

“First I need you to text all the other students to come back here, even the ones who went home. Tell them it’s something very important I need help with…”

Davie pulled out his phone and did so with a smile, happy to help his friend as he said, “Done!”

Matt extended his small, red, clawed hand as he continued, “Good… And now I need you to give over your life force…”

There came a tense moment as Davie stopped and lost his smile, his posse doing the same. Matt’s eyes quivered, worried that he may have pushed his disguise too far and that he was about to be ejected back to the timezone with the other annoyances. However, Davie’s smile reappeared suddenly and he extended his hand willingly.

“Sure thing man!” The quarterback declared and his friendly smile stayed on as Matt gripped the teen’s hand with all his strength and greedily absorbed all that Davie had to offer. The smile even stayed on as his impressive physique withered, his bright blonde hair turned grey and his skin became haggard and ashen.

Nearly skeletal, the smiling and barely alive teen dropped to the floor before Matt who had gone from small and shrimpy to a lanky but decently fit five and a half feet. 

‘Not bad,’ the monster thought as he inspected his now larger palm and gave it a flex with a malicious smile before turning his gaze toward Davie’s friends who cheered and clapped for Matt and his increased stature and power. The small group had already started extending their own hands and offering up their lifeforce happily as the goblin thought, ‘But I’ll be taking much, much more…’