Why is it that the bad guys always come at the most inconvenient times? Why did Freakazoid have to come in the middle of my first date? Why Anatia, why? And just how he knew where I'd be I didn't know. Nor did I care at that moment. I knew that there were hundreds of innocent people here who didn't stand a chance against Freakazoid.

The singers jumped down from the stage. One of them got caught on a microphone cord and nobody helped him up; they were all running like mad, into the storeroom, outside, into the back of the drama room, anywhere that wasn't where Freakazoid was. Then the most horrible thing that could happen on a date happened. One of Freakazoid's arms extended and he grabbed Julian by the collar of his shirt. I was kind of glad I did not have that ability, as it looked really creepy when he did it. However, this meant that the only way I was going to rescue Julian was to get up close and personal with Freakazoid.

Clearly Freakazoid had learnt something from our first confrontation. He was not in his huge bulky robot, which had clearly slowed him down on that day and also made him unable to use his other powers. I jumped up from my seat which was in the middle row. That meant I had to run down the steps in the dark. To make the descent worse, I tripped on somebody's schoolbag and tumbled down the stairs. I must have bumped my head because it was sore. I couldn't let it get to me though; my boyfriend's life was at stake.

"Even better, let the guardian come to me," said Freakazoid. "I must warn you, your love for this boy will be your undoing..." I didn't care if it would be my undoing or not, I knew I had to stop Freakazoid to save all the other people, as well as Julian. I picked myself up and walked up to the stage. Everyone else in the room was silent. My boots on the floor were the only sound to be heard. Julian wasn't making any noise; I was worried that Freakazoid had killed him. I saw that he was struggling in Freakazoid's grip, but he was still alive.

That made me realize that this was going to be harder than I thought. I had to save Julian...without hurting Julian. Make Freakazoid let him go without accidentally hitting him. My lifeforce powers weren't going to be the answer; not when I was still so new to them at least. You'd have thought I'd have learnt something after two battles, but I was still a newbie when it came to using my powers. It wasn't as if "power practise" or "self defence for the supernatural" were covered in the school curriculum. I hadn't been able to practise with my powers since that stone demon tried to destroy the school in history class.

"Tell you what," Freakazoid started. "I'll make this easier for you. It's the mortal boy...or them lot."

Of course I did the only logical thing and said, "Give-me-back-my-boyfriend-NOW. And leave those innocent people ALONE." Then something that seemed kind of natural, like it was something I'd been able to do since I was little, happened. I raised my right hand and pointed a finger straight at Freakazoid. ZZZZAP! A burst of yellow-white electricity shot out of the air in front of my finger and hit Freakazoid in the face. "Why you little..." I heard him mutter under his breath. His grip on Julian loosened, for Julian struggled free and ran from the man in the lab coat. "JULIAN!" I yelled across the drama room.

Freakazoid had said I'd be able to save either Julian or everyone else in the drama room. Now that that decision had been made for me, what would Freakazoid do to all the other innocent people in and outside the drama hall? Then I realized. Where was Julian?

WHAM!!! Well, there was the answer to that question, for when I looked in the direction of the sound, I saw Freakazoid rubbing his head. Julian was standing behind Freakazoid, algebra textbook raised above the wild-haired noggin of the mad scientist. WHAM! Julian brought "A Guide to Algebra" down upon the head of Freakazoid once again. Julian kept repeating this action, whacking Freakazoid again and again and again. By now Freakazoid looked like he was going to go mental, either because his plan was failing or because a year eight high school student was hitting him with a very thick textbook over and over again; a mortal nonetheless.

I was worried at first about what Freakazoid was going to do to my boyfriend, but I needn't have been. As soon as Freakazoid looked like he had recovered from one blow, Julian would deliver another. Julian mouthed something to me that might've been, "Attack now," but I wasn't entirely sure. I readied a ball of lifeforce, ready to finish this once and for all. The main event of the show was nearly over, I thought. But all of a sudden, Freakazoid started to cough and splutter. Julian brought his textbook down again with a thud one last time, before something weird happened. A beam of bright white light shone down onto Freakazoid. Oh no, I thought. A new gadget that might restore his energy or something. But then I saw a figure start to form in the beam.

At first I couldn't work out what it was, but as the shape became less fuzzy I saw that it was the form of a woman in a sort of cloak or dress or gown. "By Anatia..." I said, as the white light cleared. By Anatia indeed. For that was exactly who I knew was standing before us. Anatia, the all-powerful goddess of lifeforce, who had not shown herself to mortals since the creation of the first Manipulatives, was standing on the stage in the drama hall of Anatoria High School. And she was looking straight at me.