July 2000

Writer: Ben Church

"Hey here comes one of those queer theater geeks now." Casey heard as he entered the cafe. He bristled, but decided that the best way to handle it was to ignore the speaker.

That had been the best way to deal with potential bullies before, and he was confident that it would work this time.

He saw his friends across the way, and headed in their direction after getting his food.

Unfortunately his would be tormentor was not satisfied with just making fun of him from afar. Casey's feet slid out from under him as the jock who'd spoken earlier tripped him.

"Oh hey!" the young man said mockingly. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there!"

Casey started to rise, but felt the object of his sudden murderous intentions grab the back of his shirt, and pull him to his feet. An impressive display given Casey's over six foot height. "Here, let me help you." the jock said. He picked up Casey's food, and smeared it over his face.

Casey felt rage build up inside him, and then, insanely, he had to suppress a giggle. He continued to ignore the jock, and calmly cleaned himself up.

He saw his friends standing, preparing to come to his aid.

He waved them back to their seats. "Guys," he assured them. "Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it?" William said, he seemed the most upset, though no one else would be able to tell. No one except those sitting at the table. "I don't know if I'm more pissed off that the bastard did that, or saddened to see that he hasn't gotten more mature by this time." After a year in the states, his accent was much less noticeable, but it was still there, under the surface.

"I can handle it." Casey said, smiling. He had good reason to smile. He hadn't had a chance to make use of the full range of his abilities yet. This should be fun.

"Just what the hell did you think you were doing?"

"Just having a little fun sir."

"Having a little fun? We're supposed to be protecting civilians from Hostiles, not wiping food in their faces!"

"Aw c'mon he was just a little wussy queer-"

"Not another word! You're relieved of duty until further notice. And if I ever hear about you doing anything like that again...your conduct is not just unbecoming of an Initiative Commando, it's completely immature. Act your age, you're a senior in college for God's sake, not grade school baby."

"Yes sir."

That night, Johnny, the boy who'd abused Casey, headed back to his dorm, grumbling. "Relieve me of duty, I'll relieve you. You no good little-"

"Good evening Johnny." a cheerful easygoing voice said behind him.

Johnny turned, and gawked. A six foot tall white rabbit was leaning against the lamp post, reading a newspaper.

"Nice evening isn't it?"

"How'd you know my name?"

"Hey it's a small campus. I've seen you around, just never ran into you till now."

Johnny looked at him suspiciously. "Who are you?"

"Well," the rabbit scratched it's head, just behind the ears. "What name do you like?"

Johnny didn't know what was going on, but he figured he should play along till he could inform Professor Walsh about the hostile. "Stewart." he said finally.

"Why what an amazing coincidence!" the rabbit exclaimed. "My name just happens to be Stewart."

Not all evil can be seen.
Not all demons can be fought hand to hand.
Some things have to be felt.
Every evil can be defeated.
The S-Men

Episode 3:
"Harvey"

Guest Starring

William looked up from his food to see the jock that had tormented Casey the other day, enter the cafe. He looked like he hadn't slept for a while, and he kept looking nervously around.

Casey sat at the table with a pleased sigh. "Good morning to you all." he said. "And how are you?"

He looked at Johnny's situation, and giggled.

"Uh oh." Pete said. "I know that giggle. "What'd you do Casey?"

"Nothing." Casey grinned. Then he leaned in and whispered his plan to his friends.

Johnny jumped at the sound of sudden hilarious laughter.

Casey walked behind Johnny, staying invisible of course, only allowing Johnny to hear his footsteps. For some reason, he was much more paranoid than the average person. He wondered why, but didn't worry about it too much.

Over the past two days and nights, he'd gotten little bits of revenge on the offending jock. But he'd decided that one night more was all that was needed. Though it was nice getting attention from his friends by telling them what he was doing. He giggled at the memory of his tricks. He would have disguised himself as a Raven spouting Edgar Allen Poe, but he doubted the jock would know that was going on.

He realized with a start, that Johnny had stopped in front of a full length mirror. He was even more surprised when the mirror opened to reveal an elevator.

He paused only for a moment before curiosity got the better of him and he got on after Johnny. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but he wasn't a cat. Not at the moment anyway.

"Will," Pete said. They were sitting in DJ and Mikiah's apartment listening to music and playing N64. "You know about Faeries and stuff right?"

"Aye. Why d'ye ask?"

"Is Casey..."

"Actin' perfectly normal for his kind." he told him. "They're a vengeful wrathful lot the Good Neighbors are."

Pete shook his head and sighed. "Sad."

"He'll get over it. And though they can be great nuisances-"

"Don't have to tell me that." Pete muttered good naturedly.

"You'll never find a truer friend than a Fae."

Pete nodded. "I'm gettin' another beer."

Casey stepped out of the elevator and gaped at the area around him. "Holy shit they're wrong!" he thought. "Area 51 isn't in Roswell at all! It's here!"

He looked around for the alien spaceship, but saw nothing of the sort. Instead, he saw Demons being brought in, in chains, and others being subjected to tests.

He swallowed hard, realizing with a sinking feeling that he'd stepped way out of his depth here.

He started to sneak back to the elevator when he heard a chilling conversation behind him.

"Is it here?"

"Somewhere yeah." Johnny said. "It's been following me for like a week now. And I heard it get on and off the elevator."

"All right. Initiate broadband bombardment."

He didn't know what that meant, but suddenly all the demons began screaming in pain. And then he did as well as he felt as if knives were being shoved into every pore.

"There it is!"

Casey looked up, and found himself visible. In his natural form. Which thankfully was not his human one, or they would have recognized him.

Instead, he was short, about 4 foot five, with a goat's head. He shouted in alarm, as the commandos pointed guns at him.

"What the hell is that?"

"I don't know but we'll soon find out."

A man in a lab coat approached him with a syringe. He swallowed hard again. What had he gotten himself into?

Christina had, had a bit to drink, and since her boyfriend was not there to be drunk with, she instead opted for another activity. She began to sing. Soon she, DJ, Pete, and William were all singing. Mikiah stood aside and showed his amusement with a quick laugh and barely perceptible smile.

"He went this way!"

"No he's over here!"

"What is he now?"

"He's a bird!"

"I thought he was a snake!"

Despite the danger of his situation, Casey was having the time of his life. Changing form quickly, he managed to get a head start on his captors, but he had yet to find a way to get out. He was still too big, even though he was in the form of a humming bird. So he got even smaller. A Gnat.

William had left the singing room a few minutes ago. He got like this all the time now, though he couldn't say why. Or why he always seemed to cheer up when holding the sword.

So there he sat, brooding. No one in the other room seemed to notice that he was gone. And probably wouldn't. He was like that. Out of sight, out of mind. He could probably vanish and no one would notice.

His unpleasant reverie was broken by Casey bursting breathless into the room. He took a few deep breaths, then staggered to the refrigerator. He grabbed the Brita water container and drained it. Wiping his mouth on his sleeve, he sank with an exhausted sigh to the couch.

"You will not believe the night I've just had." he sighed.

"So there's a group of government commandos under the campus, and they're conducting secret experiments?" Mikiah said.

He and the others were gathered around a table on the quad. It was too nice a day to eat inside. William was planning on climbing a tree when he was finished.

"Yeah." Casey confirmed. "That about covers it."

Mikiah and Pete looked at each other and nodded. "F.E.M.A." they said.

"What?" Casey asked.

"Oh it's this theory they have." Christina explained. "FEMA is the agency that cleaned up after Roswell, and they think that they're behind all the conspiracies. Like the X-Files."

Casey just looked at his friends. "Rrrright."

Next time on The : It's all out war when the Initiative falls under the attack of a Vampire Militia!

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