A/N: In the media is the "official unofficial theme song" of Insomnia Wake: "Hysteria" (ヒステリ) by Nano! (Yes, it's in English) It's an awesome song, but since I know most people won't listen to it here's the chorus with emphasis on certain words:

It's every shameful fall, every mistake that I've made

These are the scars that have brought me where I am today

Another false conception that I fed myself to escape reality

The only lie I see is now inside of my head

The only truth slips through my fingertips in the end

Let me keep on dreaming as I watch the days just pass me on by

***

"Oh, you must be talking about Cuddles," said a gray haired old man, beard dropping to the ground as he leaned forward on a wooden cane. "He's a good dragon, but he's gotten a little too big for his pen. I remember when he was just a tiny little lizard, but they grow up so fast." He wiped a tear away from his eyes. "Makes me sad that you'll have to put him down."

You're one of those types to have pet crocodiles and not think about what happens when they grow up aren't you? "Err... Mr. Abel? May I ask you a question?"

"Yes you may, but I suspect that you won't have much time when Cuddles is out there rampaging." He croaked out a small laugh.

"Right... So why are you so old? Everyone else here is like a teenager or young adult here."

He waved his cane around above his head. "Teenagers these days! They don't know how to respect their juniors! I'm only eight years old I'll have you know!"

"Does that mean that you see yourself as an old man?" asked Marion. "I know your appearance here is based on your personal image of yourself and all..."

"Yeppers! I'm an 80 year old at heart."

Normally it's old people saying they're a kid at heart.

"Hey Mr. Abel!" said Ariel. "Does having an old body have any drawbacks?"

"Nope! I'll have you know that I'm an able old man."

"Sorry to be the downer here, as I'm normally not, but I'm pretty sure it just uprooted several trees out there," pointed out Kayson. "We should probably stop it before it hits any place that's inhabited."

We all nodded and ran out of the small house.

"Be gentle with Cuddles!" cried the young/old man.

We kept running until we caught up with the thirty foot tall monster. There were trees laying on the ground and the remnants of a stone pen in ruins. The massive black lizard flapped its wings and roared at the sky.

How did Abel keep such a powerful blightmare confined for so long?

"Here we go!"

Buddy jumped high into the air and formed two twin blades with his shirt's fibers. He swung down from above and the blades collided with the monster's scales. The dragon batted his tail at him and sent Buddy flying.

"So this is monster to be reckoned with for sure then." Marion gritted her teeth. "Don't play around you two, be serious!"

"Easy for you to say!" yelled back Bishop, who was busy... walking around and touching rocks?

"Don't make her mad unless we need to," said Kayson as a gray film appeared around his hands like gloves.

"If you guys aren't going to do anything then I will!" shouted Ariel, who mustered up all of her power to create a bubble big enough to encompass the dragon's head. The bubble wrapped around and the monster squirmed around, knocking over another tree with its tail, but it roared and the bubble popped. Ariel stood back aghast. "It just... popped it that easily?"

"It's our turn now!" declared Marion. "Kayson, try gluing its appendages together!"

"I know that," he replied, jumping forward and right at the monster. His hand connected with the scaly skin and he stuck to it like a spider. The blightmare shook and tried shaking him off, then tried scratching him off with its back leg, but when it did Kayson released his grip. In a small feat of acrobatics, he spun onto the leg, right as it connected with the torso. "Stick to the plan!" he yelled at the beast. The leg stuck to its own skin, and it began to lose balance. He started jumping around it with lots of twists and turns, sticking the limbs together.

"Board set!" said Bishop. The rocks that he had touched lifted up and hovered in the air. "Check!"

The rocks shot forward, diagonally, sideways, and in other jagged patterns as they progressed towards Cuddles. Kayson saw them coming and leapt off. The rocks pelted the beast from different angles, shattering on impact and hurting it deeply. It roared deafeningly.

"Those rocks weren't strong enough for me to keep using them huh?" Bishop frowned. "Guess I have no choice but to set up again."

Cuddles thrashed about, and its entire body convulsed and shook. Suddenly, the bonds that Kayson had fused its body together with snapped.

The other squad was frightened. "I-it broke Kayson's resin?!"

Buddy reentered the scene and all six of us had our glances meet.

We're going to have to work together to beat this thing, but what can I possibly do?

"Hey Marion? Why don't you use your power?" said Bishop.

"Yeah Marion! Come on now! If it's not wanting to show the others that you put literally everything in your purse then don't worry about it!" said Kayson, obviously trying to egg her on.

"Quiet!"

"It's fine! Hey Odd Squad! You won't laugh about her purse will you?!"

Marion looked like she was about to snap. "It's not about the purse, it's not wanting to misbehave like you all!"

"What's the problem? No one's here to see you!"

Something visibly clicked in her mind and she turned to us. "Don't go thinking that I'm as bad as these hooligans okay?" She turned back to face the dragon, then reached into a pocket in her jacket and pulled out a thumb-sized purse. It expanded until it reached normal size, then she opened it and pulled out what looked to be a dagger. She put the dagger in her other hand and dropped the purse, which made a huge "thud" as it hit the ground, stirring up plenty of dust.

What the heck is in there that makes it so heavy?! "Hey! You use a dagger too?! Now I don't feel too useless!" I pulled out a dagger and got ready to go.

"Dagger? No way, this is a sword." She held it over her shoulder and it suddenly expanded several times, forming what now looked to be a ten foot long one-edged sword. "Without all that extra weight I should be able to move quite well." She smiled. "Don't you know? Small is the new big! Shortcoming Shortage!"

And now I feel useless again. I gripped by small blade tightly. I might not have impressive abilities like the rest of them yet, but I was sure going to try.

The dragon watched carefully with an evil eye, now knowing that we were threats.

"Marion, can I borrow some ninja stars from your purse?" asked Bishop.

"Yep!"

"Good deal." He pulled out several tiny metal bits, which he threw into the air. They all expanded into ninja stars a foot or so across and floated there. "Board set."

She makes things bigger? Or... "Marion? Does your power makes things bigger?"

"Nope! It makes things smaller! The things you're seeing now are at their normal sizes!"

Just as I though. "Alright, Bishop, can you distract the dragon for a little bit? I have a plan."

-----

The metal stars were buzzing around and colliding with the beast like flies on a hot summer day. Bishop was doing his best job at keeping it under control, but it was obvious that it was getting very annoyed.

"Alright, and that's the plan!"

"Got it!"

"Nice plan: I like it!"

"Let's go!"

I stood back confidently. I had contributed to the fight, and that's what mattered to me. Now I could just step back and watch to see if it worked.

Marion sighed and emptied out her purse on the ground. "I suppose there is no choice since I need every ounce of my power for this." The items popped into a much larger pile of seemingly random items.

Buddy made a net out of hair and Kayson coated it in crucials points with his sticky resin.

Ariel waited for her turn in the action.

"Looks like it's checkmate for you Cuddles," said Bishop, who backed down and pulled the stars away.

Buddy and Kayson grabbed both sides of the net and leapt into the air. Marion ran forward. The flightless yet winged creature charged at them as well. It stopped and rose its claw to slash at Marion, but at the last possible moment, she dodged and touched one of its scales. Though it didn't lose any of its power, the beast shrunk significantly, becoming maybe a fifth of its original size. They brought the net down over it and the net stuck firmly to the ground and the monster.

Kayson caught a glance of the blightmare's skin before jumping back. He smirked.

Ariel formed and threw down a huge bubble over the net and thus the target, her classic suffocation tactic at work.

"Looks like I was right!" said Kayson. "There's no way it could have broken my resin, it just ripped its own skin off to free itself! This time there's no such escape though!"

The beast struggled its best, but at every move Buddy just constricted it tighter with his improved Hairnet. I held my breath as I watched its last moves, hoping that it wouldn't find a way to break free. At last, it stopped moving.

We all cheered. We had beat a City ranked blightmare! Ariel popped her bubble, Kayson called his tar like substance back, Buddy reformed his shirt, Bishop released control of the weapons, and Marion put everything back in her obscenely heavy purse.

We investigated the body of the former pet.

"We should eat it!" declared Ariel.

This group really doesn't allow for normal celebration do they? "Why are you obsessed with eating monsters when we don't even need to eat?! And there's no way Abel would be okay with that!"

"Na, it would be a waste if we didn't," said Abel, who was hobbling towards us at that point. "It's fine, he was just a monster after all."

He really didn't care for his "pet" at all did he?

Marion immediately hid her now small but still just as full purse to make sure there would be no more witnesses of it.

We all laughed and that night feasted on dragon.

"Hm. Tastes like spider."