[IC] Stranger Beetles

[Metronome]

Nate was stunned, stuck to the spot with fear. "What the hell is that thing?!" He finally got control of his legs and ran like hell. Nate found the nearest door to the outside and pushed it open. "Come on!" He waved frantically to Zach and Lydia.

[Beetlejuice96]

Zach didn't need telling twice as he scrambled after them, slamming the door shut behind him in fear. "What the hell was that?!" He exclaimed.

"The Collector. Those lunatics actually did it." Lydia said. This was serious now, especially if demons were escaping. Ssf he had tried telling her friends about Beetlejuice but they never believed her. Now it was time that they did.

"Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! BEETLEJUICE!" She shouted.

[Metronome]

Nate yelped when the sky suddenly grew dark. Green lighting struck near their feet, and a loud cackle sounded all around them. It seemed BJ was feeling up to his old theatrics again.

When the demon appeared, he flew over to Lydia, dressed in a flight attendant outfit. "Thank you for flying air Netherworld. We know you didn't have any other choice!" He paused the shtick when he noticed Nate and Zach looking at him with bulging eyes.

"Uh, Lyds?" He was suddenly back to normal, "What gives?"

[Beetlejuice96]

"Those fucking lunatics managed to open a door to the Netherworld and The Collector is attacking the school. We have to stop it before it gets out of hand." Lydia explained.

"H-He's real! You weren't lying!" Zach exclaimed in shock. "We thought you were-"

"Schizophrenic? Nuts? Yeah, join the club." Lydia interrupted before looking at Beetlejuice. "Think you can handle him or will you need bait?"

"Bait?!" Zach squeaked

[Metronome]

"Wait, that's a demon?!" Nate asked incredulously. "Why does he look like a used car salesman?"

"Don't flatter me, Kid," Beetlejuice said. "The Collector, huh? No problem, Lyds. Uncle BJ's got a bone to pick with him, anyways."

He flew into the school, suddenly dressed like a masked luchador. He found the other demon pretty quickly. They were both suddenly in a wrestling ring, a crowd of Beetlejuices cheering as the original Beetlejuice waved and bowed.

"Gracias, gracias," He said, hamming it up. A beetle clone in a striped referee shirt appeared in the middle of the ring, holding a microphone.

"In this corner, we have the OG Beetlejuice, nominated most handsome demon in the Netherworld! Single and ready to mangle!" The ref turned and looked the Collector up and down with a look of disgust. "And in this corner...we have this guy." The clone crowd boo'd loudly.

Nate, curious, poked his head in the door. Who would want to miss a super awesome demon fight, like come on?! Seeing the pure shenanigans Beetlejuice was pulling, he looked at Lydia with an expression of confusion. "Does he do this a lot?"

[Beetlejuice96]

"As a reality bending demon of the Shoggoth family, every chance he can get." Lydia replied. She couldn't help but smile at her goofball being a total ham. "We can't draw any attention to ourselves or The Collector will be after us faster than I summoned Beej."

"Okay, you're officially awesome. You have a demon to fight other demons for you. That's so cool!" Zach exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.

"Like I wasn't awesome before?" Lydia teased. "Oh, and since you know about him, you should know that Delia isn't my real name. It's Lydia."

[Metronome]

"Lydia?" Nate questioned. "Huh...yeah, I never thought "Delia" fit you." He turned back to look through the crack in the door. Beetlejuice was currently wrestling the Collector, with six extra arms coming out of various places of his being.

He looked back at Lydia. "This is so weird. If he can bend reality, why doesn't he just turn that other guy into an ant and squash him?"

A Beetlejuice clone appeared beside them, leaning on the wall. "Because, kid, that's not nearly as funny!"

[Beetlejuice96]

"Ahh!" Zach yelped, jumping as the clone appeared to explain. As he did, he accidentally hit the door, opening the crack further open. The Collector's eye moved along the sewn edges before it was staring right at the kids. A demonic screech rang out from its nonexistent mouth before quickly trying to crawl towards the living.

"Shit. Run!" Lydia exclaimed, shoving them to run down the hallway

[Metronome]

"Hey, get back here! I haven't even done my Undertaker impression, yet!" Beetlejuice flew after the other demon. He cut it off right before he could reach the kids.

"Alright Leatherface wannabe, it's time to go back home," BJ announced. He opened a portal to the Netherworld, the green light shining through. When the monster tried to flee, he extended his arm up the hall and snagged it, hauling it back by the scruff. "Come back any time you wanna fight a real demon!"

With that, Beetlejuice tossed the monster into the portal and zipped it up with a giant zipper. He dusted his hands as the portal disappeared. "Well, glad that's over with." He turned back to the kids. "And it looks like the cat's out of the bag!"

He turned into a striped cat and leaped into Lydia's arms. Nate just now seemed to put two and two together. "Your dog was a demon a the whole time?! Why did he eat my homework for Literature?!"

Catjuice shrugged. "Mark Twain and I had a little spat back in the day. I saw his name on it and couldn't help myself."

[Beetlejuice96]

Lydia chuckled softly before scratching Catjuice's head. "He's hard to control, especially if he's in one of his moods. He's been my family ever since my parents died." She said before explaining everything to them, even about the so called electric facility's true identity.

"Wait, so a government facility kept you guys here for years and sent you on top secret missions where you could have been killed?" Zach asked, making sure he had everything right.

"Pretty much, yeah. But you guys can't call me Lydia in pubic or they'll find Beej and I and take us back there." She said before hearing footsteps. "Act normal." She said mostly to Catjuice as she held him, seeing a police officer hurry towards them.

[Metronome]

Catjuice growled when he saw the cop, his tail fluffing. "Hey Mr. Charles!" Nate waved the officer over. "That's the cheif of the police. He's my dad's best friend," Nate explained to Lydia. "Let me handle this."

When Charles asked what happened, Nate came up with an impressive on the spot lie. "Some maniac in a Halloween costume broke into the school," Nate said. "We saw him run off towards the woods."

[Beetlejuice96]

Lydia watched Nate lie to the cop, observing him curiously. He oddly looked familiar but she couldn't remember why; like a dream hidden in fog. She was brought out of her thoughts when the cop asked if they were alright.

"Yeah. Yeah, we're fine." She replied, holding Catjuice close to her. No doubt he could feel her heart beating in her chest.

[Metronome]

Catjuice hissed at the cop, who just raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, stay safe, kids." With that, he radioed the other officers to head into the woods and headed off.

"That was close, kid," Catjuice said. "We just probably head back to the house, regroup, and figure out what to do about this portal."

[Beetlejuice96]

"Right." Lydia said with a little nod before noticing that Zach and Nate were still there, standing off a little ways."What about them? They know the truth now. Should we bring them along?" She asked.

"Dude, what are we going to do? We just lied to a cop and our new best friend happens to have a demon on her side that can defeat other demons. Do we team up to take other demons down or what?" Zach asked Nate, looking back at Lydia and Beetlejuice.

[Metronome]

Beetlejuice look up at Lydia and shrugged. "I mean, they might come in handy for something. I don't know what, but something I'm sure."

"Hell yeah!" Nate pumped his fist. "This is so cool!" He seemed pretty stoked.

"I'll poof us back to the house. You two grab my tail!"

"You can do that?" Nate asked with a wide grin.

"I can do whatever I want, Kid."

They appeared inside the Maitland home second later. Adam and Barbara came running.

"We heard someone attacked the school! Are you alright?" They paused upon seeing Lydia's friends and a summoned Beetlejuice. "What's going on?" Adam asked.

[Beetlejuice96]

"They know the truth." Lydia said before telling them what happened but sparing them the details of what The Collector looked like. She couldn't bring herself to horrify the innocent labradoodles. "Beej saved us before there were any casualties."

"It was so cool! He turned the hallway into a fighting ring like WWE!" Zach exclaimed.

[Metronome]

"Yeah, I can't believe you were hiding basically a real, live genie from us," Nate said with a fake pout. "But for real, what's the plan with this portal thing? You can close it, right?" He looked at Beetlejuice, who was now in his regular form.

"Of course I can. I just gotta' get close enough," He looked at Lydia, a bit reluctantly, "But that means you gotta come with me, kid. What do you say? Rush into danger with your ol' pal BJ for old time's sake?"

[Beetlejuice96]

"To put those a- morons out of commission once and for all? Let's do it." She smirked. The thought of making that facility crumble brought hope and a bit of joy to her. Her captures being the ones to suffer the consequences.

"You're not going in alone. We're helping you guys, like it or not." Zach said, folding his arms.

"No, out of the question. You guys could get hurt, or worse killed." Lydia said.

"And like you won't? We all agreed to be friends. Friends help each other."

[Metronome]

"We can't let you kids go up there alone," Adam said. He paused, looking hesitant. "We'll come to."

"Oh, great. So now we gotta babysit two kids and a couple of labradoodles," Beetlejuice griped.

"Babysit?!" Nate repeated indignantly.

Then, there was a loud knock at the door. The room froze, and no one seemed to keen on answering it.

"We know you're in there. The house is surrounded. Give up the girl and the demon and no one will get hurt."

[Beetlejuice96]

"Shit, how did they find us?" Lydia asked, forgetting about the whole not cursing around the labradoodles. She glanced at Beetlejuice, her face pale. If they stayed, someone could get hurt. If they fled, they'd be tracked down.

"What's the plan, Beej?"