Dr. Mastiff has managed to escape from the Black Hole by some weird twist of fate. He was released by an unknowing Hellin who heard his earsplitting screams for help. Hellin foolishly twines a rope and lowers it down to him and releases the demented dentist once again to roam free in the Provinces. The Gatekeeper teams up with his team of Harbingers known as Hellin, Baron Samedi, Gevaudan, Anne de Chantraine, Khufu, and Elizabeth Bathory. Dr. Mastiff has reunited with his band of six Special Soul Rangers known as Ja, Woks, Zass, Sep, Rott, and Nof. Each of these Special Soul Rangers has special abilities. On the other hand, the Harbingers are prepared to unleash an arsenal of tricks and horrors only possible in The Other Side. There can only be one winner in this battle and as far as The Gatekeeper is concerned, 2nd place is no place. This story begins with The Gatekeeper assigning each Harbinger their own Soul Ranger to banish.
First, Hellin must get Rott. Understanding she is outmatched against Rott with his "hog from hell", she summons her favorite toys. The numbered cube, and the jack in the box. The Gatekeeper uses his powers to transport Rott, the Special Soul Ranger, to Hellin's diabolical fairground. The silent Hellin patiently waits for the unwary Rott to fall into her clever trap. Rott is walking through the fairgrounds when Hellin's jack in the box jumps out at him. And when the clown pops it head out of the box, it reveals it's razor sharp teeth. Rott quickly sends his hog after it. Then, in one simple snap, Rott's hog is gobbled up and digested into the center of the plastic clown.
Seeing this, Rott is terrorized and quickly runs down the path towards the carousel. He quickly discovers that he has been trapped as a monstrous cube comes storming down the path behind him. Rott quickly attempts to leap inside a nearby window. He hops and slams down on the cold concrete floor. Hearing the window slam shut behind him, he realizes he is trapped. He then begins hearing an earsplitting carnival style music, that only Hellin could concoct. Rott begins to run through doors and eventually stops to take a breather. He quickly realizes that he is in the same room where he started. Rott then hears Hellin's childish gambol, and although he is a Special Soul Ranger, he becomes frightened. He then glances around at the purple smoke filtering in through the funhouse walls. Rott slowly drifts into a sleep, and the last thing he remembers seeing is The Gatekeeper tossing his lifeless skeletal body into the deep Black Hole.
Next, The Gatekeeper assigns Elizabeth Bathory the honor of capturing Nof. But instead of Nof coming to Elizabeth's castle, she must go to Nof. Nof is the badlaw of the sewers. The Fastest Gun of The Other Side. But none of this trouble's Ms. Bathory, as she has an army of blood-sucking bats ready to harm him. Elizabeth Bathory begins trodding along through the sewers under Hellin's fairground. Nof has heard that Rott has been captured and had a trap of his own set up for her. She is in bat form when suddenly she sees a brown, tattered net fly over her and some of her bat bretheren. She has been trapped by Nof.
Meanwhile, in The Gatekeeper's world, he is considering how to get Dr. Mastiff, the demented dentist, in the Black Hole with all the other Special Soul Rangers he will eventually capture. As he begins to assign another Harbinger a task, he hears footsteps and Elizabeth Bathory walks up the path towards them carrying the gnawed, skeletal body of Nof. She is bleeding profusely and admits that she went through serious pain with his gunshots. But only certain things can kill a vampire. And especially a vampire with a horde of other bats at the ready. And with one swift movement Nof is tossed into the Black Hole with Rott.
Next, The Gatekeeper assigns the task of capturing Ja, to Baron Samedi the Zombie. Since both of them play music, The Gatekeeper thought this would be a good idea. Baron Samedi would send Ja an invitation for a music contest at his Cathedral of Jive. When Ja gets the invitation he quickly gathers up his band, Death Rattle, and begins walking towards the Baron's province. When Ja arrives he discovers the contest began without them. He quickly puts his instruments behind the stage and waits. Knowing the kind of Soul Ranger Ja is, he will never turn down a challenge. The Baron finishes his song with his soul choir and hands the stage over to Death Rattle. Death Rattle plays a hard rock style of music and sound professional. Baron Samedi applauds them but knows that he has something else to do besides listen to them. Baron Samedi walks up on stage with them and begins talking to Ja.
I appreciate you coming to my cathedral, kids. said Baron Samedi. Just then Baron Samedi leaps onto Ja and begins breaking his bones and fighting with all his might. Ja catches Baron Samedi one large gash across his back with his guitar. But the baron knows that him being a zombie means he can never die. While his soul choir had the other members of Death Rattle pinned to the floor, Baron Samedi began bagging up Ja's broken bones. When a piercing blast from a gun came blazing through the wall and hit the baron in the head, he was quickly knocked to the floor. It was a purple blast similar to a shotgun. Baron Samedi was horribly mangled after the shot and was forced to drag the bag to the black hole in serious pain. After the gunshot, the suspect had ran off and couldn't be caught by the soul choir.
The Gatekeeper showed no pity for Baron Samedi and made him walk back to his Cathedral of Jive. After this incident there were only 2 Special Soul Rangers left standing. Sep, and Zass were them. The Gatekeeper quickly assigned Anne de Chantraine the task of capturing Sep. Next up was Gevaudan capturing Zass. Anne and Sep were pretty evenly matched. Magic versus Chemical Warefare. Sep was unexpectedly loading a canister of a virus into his weapon when he suddenly seen a red flash of light and he was looking up at Anne de Chantraine as Sep was now a rat. Sep quickly ran to his gun and shot out a case of smallpox. Anne de Chantraine was immediately infected but grabbed up the rat and scurried off to the black hole. On the way to the black hole Anne was having a hard time staying on her feet. But she needed not to worry as at that very instant a purple flash of light gleamed, and Anne de Chantraine was knocked off her feet and slammed onto the dirt path. She woke up with a man leaning over her. She could not distinctly tell who he was, as she was inside a net. Get up witch. said the man. I am not going to interfere with your journey to take Sep back to the black hole, but tell The Gatekeeper i'm coming.said the man. And then Anne was hit with a heavy object and knocked out once more.
When Anne de Chantraine awoke she told The Gatekeeper about the man. And he knew it must have been Dr. Mastiff. So he sent Anne back to her Punkin, as her part in this battle was over, for now. Then Gevaudan was sent out to capture the final Special Soul Ranger Zass. Zass is the Soul Trader of the sewers. With an uncanny ability to capture and sell high quality souls. But Gevaudan the Werewolf knew he was much stronger than Zass
. With large teeth, and long claws. Gevaudan tracked down Zass trying to steal souls from Baron Samedi's soul choir. Baron Samedi was not happy about this but was too injured to stop Zass on his own. He immediately ripped Zass' clothing to shreds and clawed his bones to the ground. Gevaudan gathered the bones into his mouth and a bag and carried them to the black hole. But what Gevaudan did not realize was that he no longer was walking on the dirt path. He was suddenly walking up to a large forest which he recognized as his own province, Forest Le Gevaudan.
He quickly turned around into the face of a large skeletal figure known as Dr. Mastiff. Well it looks like you want to play dog breath. Don't mess with me with me 'cause i'm twisted! said Dr. Mastiff. Gevaudan hopped onto Dr. Mastiff and scuffed him up badly. But Dr. Mastiff is not weak by any means. Mastiff quickly threw Gevaudan for miles into his woods and began to run down the path. Gevaudan smashed into a tree knocking it flat onto the ground and realized he still had the bones of Zass in the bag. So he scurried off to the black hole.
When he arrived at the black hole. The Gatekeeper was already waiting for him. Throw in those bones you maggot! said The Gatekeeper. Gevaudan tossed the bag into the hole. Now let's catch us some Mastiff meat wolfboy! said The Gatekeeper. I mean Mastiff bones. Upon tossing in the bag, The Gatekeeper was thrilled at the fact that his Harbingers had captured all of the Special Soul Rangers. It was now up to him to catch Mastiff. He looked everywhere for Mastiff, but could not seem to find him. The Gatekeeper dredged the sewers for days but only found remains from the previously present Soul Rangers. Then The Gatekeeper began to believe he had a traitor on his hands, and knowing The Gatekeeper he would find out as soon as possible. He searched all of the Harbinger's provinces but came up empty.
Days later, The Gatekeeper assembled his 6 Harbingers together once more to discuss the whereabouts of Mastiff. But after hours of thinking, nothing came up. The Gatekeeper was sitting around a campfire with his Harbingers. Everybody, SMILE! said a voice. The Gatekeeper stood up and looked behind him to see the 6 Special Soul Rangers standing on the path. Rott, Nof, Ja, Sep, Zass, and Woks. The Gatekeeper looked at Woks and suddenly realized he had made a critical error. He forgot about Woks. Woks, the trickiest of the Soul Rangers had been forgotten. The Harbingers quickly discovered who had been shooting the weapon secretly, as Woks unleashed a barrage of purple light upon the campfire crowd.
Then Mastiff steped out from behind a tree and jumped at The Gatekeeper slamming his laughing gas mask onto The Gatekeeper. Because Woks had unleashed the shots onto the Harbingers most were lieing on the ground. Only Baron Samedi, Khufu, Gevaudan, and Elizabeth Bathory were standing. Hellin and Anne de Chantraine were still in shock from the attacks.
Bathory sent her bats onto Sep and Ja. The bats carted them off and dropped them in the black hole once again. Baron Samedi took off his hat and lunged onto Rott, Baron Samedi was outmatched but nonetheless he fought and managed to break him into two halves, torso and abdomen. The baron grabbed up the two halves and ran up to the black hole and tossed them in. As he was walking away, Woks shot him with the gun and blew the baron into the black hole. Khufu had no earlier part in this battle but was hasty to make a part for himself. He snuck up behind Zass and put his cobra onto Zass' shoulders, Zass was bitten and poisoned and fell into the black hole, along with the cobra.
Dr. Mastiff had used his mask to put The Gatekeeper to sleep. He now focused his attention onto the remaining Harbingers. He ran at Gevaudan and jammed his hand of dentistry tools deep into Gevaudan's back. The werewolf howled to the harvest moon and fell over on his side. At this point the entire place was specked with blood and bones. Only 2 Harbingers were standing against 2 Special Soul Rangers. And The Gatekeeper was knocked out cold. Mastiff left the 2 remaining Harbingers to the Soul Rangers. Since both Hellin and Anne de Chantraine were injured, Mastiff tossed their bodies into the black hole, but not before losing a few bones with their feeble attempts to fight back. Since Woks, and Nof both used weapons the Harbingers were outmatched big time. Elizabeth Bathory and Khufu wounded the Soul Rangers but were quickly apprehended and tossed deep into the black hole.
Dr. Mastiff was excited at winning back the Provinces for him and his Soul Rangers. He was planning on renovating them to make them more suitable for skeletons. Dr. Mastiff picked up the lifeless body of The Gatekeeper and walked to the edge of the black hole. Mastiff tossed in his body and dusted his clothing off after a wonderful victory. I think we did it boys. said Dr. Mastiff. Just then The Gatekeeper sprung from the hole and grapped Mastiff. The 2 Special Soul Rangers began firing at The Gatekeeper, but the clever Gatekeeper grabbed Mastiff, and used him to stop the oncoming bullets. Mastiff was laying on the ground. Then The Gatekeeper looked at Woks and Nof and said "You're banished maggots!".
A flashing red light surrounded them and they disappeared. Now it was just The Gatekeeper and Dr. Mastiff. Mastiff ran at The Gatekeeper and slammed his dental tools into The Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper grapped Mastiff's skull and ripped it off of his skeleton body. He tossed the skull onto the ground and stomped it into dust. That'll teach you never to invade my Provinces again, you scum-sucking maggot. said The Gatekeeper. Although Mastiff was headless he still had a body. He ran at The Gatekeeper but The Gatekeeper moved out of the way and the headless skeleton fell into the black hole once more. Mastiff and his 6 Special Soul Rangers were defeated. The Provinces were restored, the Harbingers were released, The Gatekeeper once again was king, and evil flourished in the Provinces once more. For in the land of The Other Side, only one man reigns supreme.
