The next couple of weeks were completely normal. No Freakazoid, and no darkforce-born monsters attacking the school in the middle of history class. This gave me more time to get to know Julian more, though I was still cautious about how quiet things were on the enemy front. Julian was in all my classes except music. He told me once that his music teacher in primary school had hardly ever let him do anything in the school's band or choir because of his lack of musical talent, but a couple of days ago I heard him singing in the library (don't ask me why, besides, I think the school library makes a good concert hall) and his singing had actually sounded quite nice.

It was in specialized geometry class when he asked me. "Millicent...I've been putting this off for a while but...will you go out with me?" I looked up from my geometry textbook and stared at him in surprise. The truth was, I'd been putting asking him out off as well. After all, why would he, a really cute and fully human guy, want to go out with me? I wasn't fully human and I didn't know how powerful I was. Not to mention that I would probably be a magnet for trouble, and put him in danger by being with him. What's more, if I had been expecting him to ask, I certainly wasn't expecting it in the middle of a geometry lesson. I wasn't usually the romantic type but I did have a crush on him and this was my only oppertunity to take it further.

"Yes, Julian. What did you have in mind exactly?" I asked.

"Well...um...there's a school concert that the year 12s are putting on in a week, on Tuesday night, and I accidentally got given two tickets to see them. Would you like to come?"

"Of course! I was hoping to go to that but I hadn't gotten around to getting a ticket," I said.

I was hoping that this exchange had gone down quietly, but unfortunately I had no such luck. "Oh my Anatia! Did you hear? The steampunk chick, you know, the one that blew up that huge robot a few weeks ago, has got a boyfriend," I heard some guy saying.

"OMG. Who was the lucky guy?" some girl said.

"The new kid in Benchworthy's class."

I kept getting held up in the corridors too, which was a huge pain. It was the same for all the days leading up to the concert.

On the night of the year 12s' concert, I wore my best dress (which I hardly ever wore), and also a hat. Julian was already there. He was wearing a white shirt, a black jacket and jeans. "I'm sorry I was a bit late," I said hurriedly. The bus had been late, and it took ages for everyone to get on.

"No, really, it's fine," Julian said. We walked into the school drama hall. It was dark in there except for a few lights. I could hear people saying, "Microphone working?" and then someone said really loudly into the microphone,

"ELLOHAY! THIS THING ON? YEP, GUESS SO!" The noise rung in my ears, but it was as quiet as a mouse when compared to what happened next.

"SURRENDER THE GUARDIAN."

That voice was definately not someone testing the microphone. Julian stared at me. The voice was slightly familiar. It sounded angry too. We passed it off as a prank, because the show soon started and nothing else happened for a while. We sat back enjoying the concert. There were some good songs in it, including ones like "Colour My World" by Petula Clark, as well as Animian favourites like "The Spice of Lifeforce," by Manipulatown.

"Show's over, kiddies!" came a voice that sounded like it was coming from...above us. All of a sudden, the lights went out. The students stopped singing mid-word, as a figure with all-too-familiar looking metallic bat-like wings burst through the window of the theatre and stood at the front of the stage.

"Doctor Freakazoid's the star of this show now! Surrender the guardian...or that awful concert's not going to be the only thing ruined around here!"