headlock. Lowery thought he was doing real well, too, and believed he was well on the way to choking both of his opponents out.
Brandon looked over to his wife and said, “Have you had enough of this yet?”
Valerie replied, “Just give him a few more seconds and we will kick this thing into overdrive.”
A few seconds passed by before Val and Brandon transitioned into their minotaur personas, their heads feelings exactly the same to Lowery as they had since he started chocking them, but now their legs had been traded in for the hooves of angry bulls, scraping them across the ground until it was time to punt Lowery into a thick row of brush across the field.
Garrison teamed with his daughter Sharon to take on Randy Prince. Though the two would have been on much more familiar ground if they were in the water, they decided to bring a little aquatic fun to the Great Lawn of Beach Haven Park. Sharon had been able to access both protector and hunter capabilities because of her gene pool before this battle, but was now limited to only hunter exteriors.
She turned into a grizzly bear and said, “Do I look like a dolphin?”
Gary had already gained control of Prince and was spinning him on his dolphin and nose, “Yes, you do!” he exclaimed as he passed Randy over to his bear daughter who was on her back and continuing to spin the body with her furry legs.
“Batter up!” Sharon yelled as passed Prince over to her father and he swatted the human ball with his fin over a white picket fence.
“That’s outa’ here!” Sharon yelled as the high-fived and then hugged in celebration for the human home run.
The last of the matchups was Thaddeus and Maxwell against Mary Brewster, Thad’s ex wife. It was the only confrontation where emotion could have entered into the fray.
“Are you gonna‘ be all right hitting...” was all that Max got out before Thad walked straight at his Mary and dropped her with one straight punch to the face.
Max continued, “Your ex wife... and I guess that answer is a resounding yes!”
Thad walked back past Max and grunted, “That thing is not my wife.”
The action continued and Hartwell’s gang continued to wear on the apes in their human facades until Hartwell thought it was safe to play. He turned to Kayla and said, “I think it’s time for us to come out of our bubbles,” and she obliged by rescinding the protection for her and Hartwell.
Fight action progressed in stages, from the initial blows to more team- and change-oriented action in the middle. Once Hartwell and Kayla became involved most of the action was purely instructional, with the senior members of the team offering up tips on how to en most effective within the battle.
In one station, Cal Brewster was illustrating the proper technique to both deliver and block punches.
Gabriel was used as a live punching bag, with Andrew holding him up when needed.
“When you punch, make sure you get your shoulder involved before letting your fist go anywhere near your target. This way, you’re using the force of your body and not delivering a blow that will keep you off balance.”
Samuel stepped up and stood in a boxing stance and Cal went behind him to help facilitate his learning.
“Step with your left foot and anchor it in the ground as you deliver the punch from your shoulder.”
Samuel stepped up and awkwardly threw a right hand that barely grazed Billingsley’s jaw. Gabriel woke up for a moment and swung his left arm and hit Samuel on the side of the head, awakening his senses and helping him focus on what he had just learned. He absorbed the blow and then retained his balance long enough to properly step back into a left hook that connected flush on Gabriel’s jaw and knocked him out.
“You can let go of him now,” Cal said to Drew. “By jove, I think he’s got it!”
Daniel and Hartwell were at another station and doing the tai chi practice they performed daily while Daniel was growing up and Hartwell was the comforting spirit that was guiding him. Following and copying their every free-flowing movement was Carla, Nicole, Maxwell, Valerie, Brandon and Mary Brewster, who was a little woozy yet was a willing participant.
“I could have used this to calm me down a few months after you turned me,” Brandon stated in a calm tone.
“I’m sorry, Brandon. I was on the trail of Daniel back then. You know I would have helped you if I could,” Hartwell replayed in an equally dulcet tone.
“We’re all family now anyway,” Daniel added.
“It’s nice to have family,” a powerless Mary Brewster calmly interjected.
“Yes it is,” Brandon said as he looked around the circle of trust. “No offense, but that probably doesn’t include you,” Brandon said to Mary.
“No offense taken,” she replied.
Thaddeus and Garrison were teaching a different kind of self-defense course, as their methods were enmeshed in old-school techniques.
They decided to bring Charles Lowery in on the demonstration, because he was the ex-vampire they most wanted to strike repeatedly.
“When you use brass knuckles,” Thaddeus said pulling out his favorite pair of brassie’s from his right pocket, “it is important to keep in mind to let the hardware do the work for you.”
Garrison handed out enhanced knuckles to Blake, Aaron, Belinda, Ariel, Kayla and Sharon, who fitted the brass piece on their strong hands.
The remainder of the barely functioning apes were standing in front of the class like a bunch of test dummies at an auto plant testing facility.
“As you can see, the weight of the knuckles propels the fist toward the target,” Thad said and then struck Lowery squarely in the jaw. The rest of the group following his instructions and got better with each enthusiastic attempt. Garrison then went through the paces of showing the group how to effectively conceal and then use a Billy club, which was the front-weighted predecessor to the nightstick.
The beaten apes were barely able to stand after taking such an extended beating, so the group helped bring them home and place them in bed, much as they did the previous night. The vampires worked on altering the story of the evening in their minds while the coming of the new day’s sun would restore their bodies to a functional, but not operational level.
TWENTY-FIVE
Hartwell and his band of educators and pupils decided to dine at the Beach Haven Diner again after hours and enjoyed a good meal before heading off to bed. Maggie was resting on Hartwell’s chest and she said, “So, where do we go from here?”
Hartwell closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “I hope to have resolution of this later today.”
Maggie smiled, “Good, because I really want to return to normal life.”
Hartwell smiled, “And be able to go to that knitting show in Manhattan.”
Maggie kissed Hartwell on the cheek, “And that, too!”
It was about 9:30 am and Hartwell had to attend to some business, so he strolled from his bedroom into the sun room and spoke internally to a familiar ally.
“I think we have it to a point that they are ready for whatever you have cooking,” he said to Linda Vinson who had been working diligently on her counter-spell since their last conversation.
She replied, “We are good to go, Mr. Hartwell. Just bring your assets to the drop-off point and everything else is taken care of - except of course building the actual drop-off point itself.
“Thanks, Linda!” Hartwell exclaimed.
“Does this mean that we’re all square now?” she hesitantly asked.
“It will be once this is all completed tonight,” Hartwell replied and then went on with the rest of his day.
Later in the day, the family was gathered for yet another meal at dinner in the main room of the house.
“I know you don’t like to mix food and business, but what is the plan for tonight, Thomas?” an somewhat eager Thaddeus asked as everyone else unstrapped the feed bag for a moment to hear his response.
“Tonight, we end this thing,” Hartwell stated and then looked into the eyes of
each person at the table. He then looked at his senior advisors, “Thad and Gary, you will lead one team in the construction phase of our plan, and I will lead the other team in transporting our assets to your location.”
He then went on to detail deeper aspects of the plan and his desire to try the chicken parmesan dinner at the Beach Haver Diner once the job was done.
“You have to try the Thanksgiving Platter, too!” Thad gushed.
“Yeah, that homemade cranberry sauce and stuffing is to die for!” Emily added, backing up her father.
The plan on this night was to start at 9:00 pm, a few hours ahead of the usual start time for nighttime battles. Thad and Gary led a party of four vehicles that made the trek from Beach Haven to the Bronx, New York, to begin construction on what was planned to be more suitable permanent surroundings for their foes. And with their full powers restored by the combined powers of Claire and Linda Vinson, which was in direct conflict with the focus of senior witch Brenda Vinson, the entire job that would have taken months for an ordinary construction crew would take only hours for this supernatural bunch.
The apes would not be meeting Hartwell’s group at the great lawn of Bech Haven Park on this night because they were too weak to even get out of bed. The final leg of their transformation from super-charged apes to helpless mortals, and then back to regular apes would be completed when the apes were back in familiar surroundings.
Hartwell and the other vampires left the house at midnight and took their time getting over to Gabriel