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It was just occurring to Clyde that both of these teens seemed to be mutants themselves. The one who called himself Miles seemed to be mind-controlling the demon dogs, while he teen who introduced himself as Lennox was seemingly immune to the hallucinations. Once Miles was finished testing what he was seeing with the dogs, the three of them seemed to be on the same page about the situation.

“Clyde,” he introduced himself to the other two, in part because the others introduced themselves, and in part because the injured teen called him shreads. He didn't appreciate being given any other nickname, for that matter. He noticed that guy was wrapping his injured arm in a long bandage. Strange. What kind of guy kept a bandage like that on him?

Again, the oversized spider was trying to climb his leg. He had to keep telling himself that it was not real. It looked real, though. The creature made him want to scream, but he did his best to ignore it. They definitely needed to do something fast. Miles sounded like he was on to something when he suggested that Lennox might be able to find the source since he was unaffected, but from what he said, he looked just about as clueless.

“Not sure what's causing this. A mutant, probably,” he said to the other two teens. He knew well enough that mutants could do many things, but he hadn't had much experience meeting other mutants, let alone trying to single one out from a crowd. “Not quite sure how to pick them out. Maybe someone who's acting strange,” he continued, shrugging his shoulders. How was a person supposed to look when making people see terrifying things? All he could do was throw out ideas.

The gruesome deed done, Clyde finally had a moment to breathe. The shorter of the two teens was rambling on about being surrounded by thralls that were black with red eyes. Funny. The only things that fit that description were that guy's two demonic hounds. Then, he turned to him, asking about what he killed.

“Damn spider,” he muttered, not really in response to the owner of the attack dogs. It should have been obvious. It was still recognizable as a spider. Strange.

A sudden, violent barrage of yelling from the injured teen startled Clyde. Too shocked from the outburst to process what the guy was saying, the only thing he could pick out was that the guy just called both him and the other teen idiots. True, he was righteously angry about getting mauled, and the dog owner could be considered an idiot for bringing those creepy canines to the park, but why was he getting labeled an idiot as well?

Gathering himself, Clyde fixated his glare upon the tall teen. That guy had already calmed down and told them what they were seeing were illusions of their worst fears. Come to think of it, that explanation actually made sense. Why else did the hellhound owner not notice the spider going after him? Additionally, not everyone was running from spiders. The shorter highschooler was ranting about thralls. Other people were instead screaming about things like demons, men with guns, snakes, and swarms of Justin Biebers.

If the spiders were not real, and he was indeed hallucinating or something, it could mean only one thing. The whole time, he was whacking a nonexistent monster spider, not to mention he was a teen wearing kid's clothes, so he probably looked completely ridiculous. This was embarrassing, though Clyde was determined to not let it show.

“I guess we'd better find the cause,” he said. If what was scaring everyone was some elaborate illusion, people might wind up hurt. He redirected his piercing stare at the teenager with the injured arm. “By the way, I'm not an idiot,” he asserted, narrowing his eyes.

Yeah, he goes to a public high school. Anything else?

It was a swing... and a miss. Instead of smashing the arachnid, he managed to hit the hellhound guy square in the knee. Oh well. The hit wasn't THAT hard. He could consider it payback for picking him up earlier.

Unfortunately, just when Clyde was beginning to believe the owner had those dogs well trained or something, all of a sudden, those very dogs were viciously attacking him and the other teen. It seemed the larger dog was preoccupied with the other guy, but the latter was going straight for him.

Clyde kept the stick out in front of him, ready to prod the smaller hellhound back with it. Even though it may have been the smaller of the two, it was still pretty big compared to him. For a second, the demon dog growled and nipped at the stick, then it popped up, chomping on his right-hand wrist.

“AGGHHH!” he screamed, dropping the stick. It was not deep wound, but it still hurt. This dog, whatever it was, was dangerous.

True, he could shift and improve his chances against the hellhound, but – oh, what the heck? Those dogs were attacking. Besides, most of the other people were likely too panicked to even take notice.

Within a couple of seconds, a stretching pain spread through his body as he turned into a teenager about the same height as the dog teen. Seams on the sides of his shorts and shirt burst as he grew. At least the waistband in his shorts was elastic enough so that he wasn't too exposed.

As soon as the dog opened its jaws just a little to try to get a better hold of him in his shifted form, he took the opportunity to yank his arm free of its grasp. Quickly, he rolled to the side, retrieved the stick, and again held it out in between him and the hellhound.

Glancing over, he could see that the other dog had done some damage to the third teen. That guy had a pair of dangerous creatures that just attacked. The irresponsibility of it all made Clyde furious. “WHY DO YOU HAVE THOSE THINGS?!” he shouted at the owner, still guarding himself against the dog with the stick.

All over, he was aching from the struggle. The now-too-tiny shoes were killing his feet, and as for the bite, he really hoped that these red-eyed dogs had had their shots.

Nothing there? There was a giant spider going after them! “Ah you crazy! They're aftah us!” he shouted at the highschooler, though those words likely fell on deaf ears.

Suddenly, the teen stopped and shouted that the monsters were right ahead. There was nothing in front of him! The spiders were coming after them! Clyde watched as the two hellhounds were about ready to defend against against a non-existent enemy. This guy was telling him to stay near the dogs. No doubt about it; the red-eyed dogs were definitely his. Why in the world did a teenager have a pair of hellhounds as attack dogs?

That thought aside, Clyde looked down to see the horror of a lifetime. The cat-sized spider from earlier was climbing up the guy's leg! It was going to bite him or something! How did he not notice that?! Searching the ground, he found just what he needed: a thick, two-and-a-half-foot long stick. That should do the trick. “Seriously. Don't move!” he said firmly, but shaking. This was going to be dangerous, and potentially very messy. He swung the stick like a bat, attempting to hit the spider.

As he swung the stick, he saw some tall teenager running towards them. He was shouting something, but with all of the panicked people, Clyde couldn't understand what he was saying, though, for some odd reason, he didn't seem to be scared.

Clyde soon figured out why everyone was so scared. Spiders. Hundreds of them were skittering out from the playground. Most were normal size, but there were several big ones, too. The largest of them was almost the size of a car! With their eight wet, beady eyes, hairy, spindly legs and gigantic, snapping mandibles, they were a terror to behold. It did not help that Clyde was terrified of spiders.

Somebody was screaming at everyone to run or else be turned into one of them (which, if he had thought about it, made no sense), but he just stood there, paralyzed with fear. He opened his mouth as if he was going to scream, but no sound came out. Those fearsome creatures were crawling everywhere, covering the playground with their nasty webs. At the moment, they were too far away to attack, but were they going to kill anything that got close?

Suddenly, he felt himself being hoisted up. His backpack must not have been closed properly, because the sudden motion spilled its contents. However, Clyde now had more serious concerns than his books and the giant spiders.

A fellow high-school aged guy had just PICKED HIM UP! There were many things one could do to annoy or humiliate a teenager like him, but getting carried was definitely near the top of the list. After all, no high school boy would like one of his peers carrying him around. Not to mention, being held that way was a huge infringement upon his personal space. WAY TO CLOSE! Of course, that high-schooler probably had no clue, but still! Clyde tried to climb out, but his feet kept on slipping down the teen's front. To heck with the spiders. His dignity was on the line!

“I can run myself, you know,” he grumbled discontentedly, making one final attempt to push himself over the guy's shoulder to break free. Maybe it was not the best idea in that situation, but at that moment, Clyde was not thinking about it.