Final Round
A sharp gasp of air caught their attention and Dash spun
in place ready for battle, lost as he was in bloodlust and madness,
scratching at his arm with a humongous grin plastered on his
jagged-toothed maw. Frank turned his head slowly, looking at Dawn
for a moment with a single eye before it rolled up into the back of
his head, a second pupil showing up from the bottom. For a moment
Frank had his face towards the sky, flickering his tongue with an
inhuman speed, confusing the young Daywatch as she backed up slowly
until she realized in a flash of insight what was happening.
Despite his monstrous nature, his ability to survive and thrive amongst monstrosities too horrible for description, he was still a human with a human's body...and this man had just devoured the entire lifetime of another man, alongside the Demon he had bonded himself with. That life, the basic energy of living, was beginning to spill out of Frank and this strange tableau was the outcome of such a thing.
He didn't just devour Jerome, he had devoured the very
foundation of his existence! Already her memory of Jerome Valken was
becoming fuzzy, and she wondered silently if she would survive this
encounter...and if so, to check her journals to see if they, too,
were affected by this phenomenon.
Leaving behind strange after-images of himself, Frank
strode towards Dawn, ignoring Dash as the troll suddenly focused on
the flesh of his arm, scratching at himself harder. Frank shook his
head, then grinned at Dawn as the tall troll-gene came up behind him,
still scratching.
"It's alright, Daywatch. Go report to the Grand Magus it's done. I'm going on a month-long vacation, but it's done, to the very last point...as you've witnessed."
Having learned wariness at an early age, Dawn kept her
eyes on both Shopkeepers, watching Dash as he walked closer to the
both of them as she asked, "I don't understand it. All this
fighting and...strangeness...and sir Dash hasn't undergone any of his
fabled Maximum Troll? No berserker rage beyond this action and
violence dependency?"
Frank chuckled, shaking his head, "Nope. We seem
to have gotten away with this without havin' to have THAT happen!
Besides, if he WAS going to go Maximum Troll, he always says
somethin' stupid and nonsensical first. Then he starts tearing bits
of himself off and...well, things get messy and violent and bad,
y'know?"
"Hey, what's all this skin doin' on my arm?"
Dash frowned at his forearm as he tore off a sizable patch of scaled,
green flesh away from his bleeding muscle. Frank responded the
moment he heard Dash ask the nonsensical question by diving forward
and tackling the young Daywatch out of the way, narrowly dodging the
patch of skin as it sprouted an eye from the center of it's mass,
claws sprang forth from it's raggedly-torn edge, and spun through the
air at high velocity, intent on buzz-sawing it's way through either
of them only to find empty air.
Dash roared, the scales on his face forming a armored
mask and tearing apart all within the blink of an eye, his eyes
completely laserlight red.
He had lost his humanity, his sentience, and his sanity
to the Maximum Troll, a berserker fury that drove all troll-gened
humanoids, or so the legends said.
The patch of skin landed on the ground and immediately
skittered towards the couple on the ground. Frank, yelling, lashed
out with a foot and sent a wave of ki energy at the skin patch,
sending it flying backwards between the troll's legs, getting himself
and Dawn up to their feet as Dash slowly stomped towards them, his
jaw unhinging and tearing the armored mask on his face apart once
again to roar at them.
With an almost casual grace, Dash tore his left hand off
and flung it forward, the bloodless stump immediately producing an
eyeball on a stalk as the hand skittered delicately on it's claws
towards them, the clawed skin patch catching itself and joining the
allies Dash had begun to produce. Immediately regenerating his left
hand, he tore his right hand off at the wrist as well, roaring as
that hand immediately formed a fist, connect to his wrist by a
streamer of blood that hovered in mid-air of it's own accord,
immediately regenerating his right fist as well.
The blood of the troll, spilled on the ground earlier
and still within the water, began to roll towards his body as he made
his slow way towards them, his maw extending further as his body
began to undergo further internal transformations.
Daywatch Tanelin and Frank backed up, Frank keeping his
own body between the monsters and the Magus behind him. He grinned
and relaxed suddenly, much to Dawn's confusion.
"M-Magus Todd?! What in the blue blazes are you
DOING?" She looked from the man to the monster and back again,
"What CAN we do?"
Frank chuckled suddenly, cracking his knuckles, leaving
behind a trail of after-images, "I'm gonna kick his ass. Bonus
round."
Dawn blinked, biting the tip of her tongue in her haste
to yell, "WHAT?! OWowowowowowowow-owie!"
Then it happened - the clash of after-images and furious
troll, the two Shopkeepers roaring in their fury.
A slash of the claw was met with a strike to the wrist,
then the human's own clawed fingers tearing at his chest. Dash
closed his eyes and literally shook the pain off, ignoring Frank for
a second as the human slammed a boot-heel upon the patch of skin,
squashing it to the ground. Though it would regenerate, it would
take more than a few moments to do that, and in the meantime he had
turned his attention back to Dash with a series of rapid-fire jabs to
his eyes.
Dash roared and slammed his fist in an overhead strike, feeling it connect solidly. Chuckling wickedly he opened up his mammoth-sized hand only to find nothing, then roared in pain as Frank's rapid-fire jabs, the Overdrive safely at level 1 but his own strength and speed sped up after feeding on Jerome's soul, caught him in the side of the face. Sweeping his claws again, he didn't even have enough time to register the miss as Frank's fists once again pummeled against the left side of his face this time.
Dawn yelped, a magic circle erupting around her as she
considered her considerable store of spells, keeping an eye on the
hand as it tip-toed on it's claws, clacking it's way amongst the
chairs and tables by the side of the pool. Concentrating, a magic
circle erupted around her as she prepared her spell, murmuring under
her breath the words necessary for it.
Hearing Dash and Frank's exertions, she charged the
spell and watched the hand as it drew closer, finally making it's
play by leaping directly onto a plastic-strapped chair, bouncing onto
a table's edge and leaping for her face.
"Talaver'n!" her voice rang with power as she
activated the spell, waving a hand in front of her and releasing a
cold spray of snow from her palm.
The hand froze up solid as it passed through the icy
sheet, narrowly hitting the Daywatch as she stepped to the side and
let it bounce along the ground.
Nodding pointedly, a mental salute to the fearsome thing, she turned and immediately backed up as Dash rammed Frank towards her, the smaller man gripped with both hands. Roaring and kicking at empty air, Frank shook violently within the troll's grasp as they both sent tables and chairs flying. Dash leapt high into the air, his hands held overhead for a moment before he opened his palms and slammed them down to the ground, intent on smashing Frank once and for all only to roar in confusion and pain.
Unable to utilize the Overdrive due to his use of his
life-sucking quirk of nature, and unable to use THAT ability at this
time, Frank did the last thing he could think to do and simply
jackknife his way between Dash's palms, allowing the scaled ridges of
his hand to tear his clothes and bits of his anatomy up but in the
process was able to escape the kill attempt, once again tearing off
at high-speed to deliver more blows to Dash's chest and back.
Moving quickly, Frank narrowly avoided Dash's new attack
as his back sprouted a mouth full of jagged teeth, stretching the
length of his back in an attempt to devour Frank again. Groaning,
Frank staggered, realizing he was quickly coming up to his utmost
limit.
Dawn, her senses picking up on Frank's dwindling strength, immediately ran to him and helped him up as the troll rolled around on the ground, his body beginning to sprout an extra limb in his confusion, "Frank...what are we going to do?"
Suddenly a light bulb went off overhead and Frank turned
towards the lobby, pointing at Dawn, "You distract him, I'm
gonna hit him!"
"Wh-WHAT?!" Dawn, suddenly realizing how in
trouble she was, turned as Dash's laserlight-reddened eyes turned
towards her. Roaring, he stalked his body back around on hands and
feet, his knees having turned inward during the last transformation.
Snapping at the air madly, he shook his head violently before leaning
down and eating a mouthful of dirt. The patch of skin shook itself
and began to skitter towards her, only to find itself devoured by
Dash. Dawn made a face as Dash gulped, looked at her then roared
wordlessly, stomping the ground as he made his way towards her.
A magic circle erupted around Dawn as she pointed,
transmuting a thin layer of grease from the grass directly in front
of Dash. Dash's hands and feet slipped out from underneath him and
he belly-flopped onto the greasy surface, keening with a high wail as
he floundered.
Not one to let an opportunity go to waste, Dawn once
again cast a magic circle as she chanted, gathering up the necessary
energies to cast a new spell. Getting to his feet, Dash snarled
through clenched teeth as he beheld the Daywatch stomp on the ground
towards her right, holding out her right hand and with a flash of
light and twisting of reality a armored version of herself "slid"
into reality, standing at her right side.
"Mirror, Mirror," she smiled as the armored version of herself stood in front of her, crossing it's arms as she continued, "You should stay where you are, sir. Frank wi-OH!"
She gasped as the troll's claws suddenly erupted from
underneath the armored figure, piercing it all the way through.
Blinking, Dawn finally realized what the troll had done, digging it's
clawed nails beneath the grease not for purchase but to lengthen and
grow them, reaching out to pierce her Armored Guardian.
Staggering backwards, she began to calmly think on another spell as the troll's claws retracted and it took stock of itself before calmly stepping out of the grease. Grinning in an evil caricature of himself, the troll began to gallop towards her, his arms and legs producing a second set of knees as his maw stretched forward in his impatience to devour her.
She cast a mage bolt instantly, wanting to distract him
with a quick strike while she charged a new attack spell, only to
feel her usual confidence finally fall as a ki shield erupted red and
angrily around the troll, the sphere of damaging magic sliding off of
it harmlessly to explode against a overturned table. Dash roared and
leapt, taking to the air in a massive pounce, his claws extended..
Preparing her final spell, unwilling to run and wanting
to go down fighting, Dawn screamed her death knell and took a step
forward, one hand surrounded by a globe of pure darkness, the other
of a freezing mist, as she hurled both fists forward.
..wwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllLLLLLLLLL-
So it was that her eyes widened as much as they ever do
as the spells were displaced and blocked completely, Dash's body bent
into a U as it caved in around the Whammy Bar of The Roadbuster as
the car, at top speed, slammed through the doors leading to the lobby
and directly into Dash in a single bound.
In that single, glorious moment of bright pain and
madness, Dash's sentience once again sparked to life and as he hung,
broken, from the hood of his beloved The Roadbuster (you have to say
the whole thing, after all), her gloriously customized wheel about
to catch on his rib, drag him down to the ground and spread his
shoulders and head into troll paste, a single thought flit through
Dash's head as he noted the characteristic glee on Frank's face.
Damn. I could've been reading a book right now. But
no. I had to be a violence junkie.
And he's playing that song again.
Triple dammit!
he
ain't my boy but the brother is heavy
gave
away my possessions and moved into a Chevy
van,
yeah thats the master plan
drive
into the woods and eat corn out the can
"Gone Guru" by Lifeseeker bumped and thumped
out of The Roadbuster's incredible sound system, reverberating
through what was left of Dash's head as he felt the awe-inspiring
power of the car rev through her wheels, tearing his body under her
as she slammed to the ground (dammit, Frank had jumped her out of the
lobby!), her driver's side front wheel grinding his head to a gooey
troll paste.
Just as equally in slow motion Dawn yeeped and doubled
over slightly, her hands covering her crotch reflexively as she
realized her white cotton panties had become thoroughly,
unexplainably smashed, bits of the cotton falling to the ground.
Landing
and laughing, Frank performed a 360 spin, scattering what was left of
the tables and chairs before unloading a massive .357 Smith and
Wesson magnum towards the flopping body of the troll-gened humanoid.
Benediction, the artifact revolver he never left home without, the
metal made from the silver crucifix used to impale and destroy
Dracula himself, thrice-blessed and cooled with holy water. Etched
along the barrel of the gun, the inscription "Blessed are they
who knoweth love" turned a burnished, amber color as the
Artifact revolver roared bloody murder, firing an especially
hand-crafted bullet made by Dash himself: silver casings,
blessed stained glass, oil, rosemary, thyme, silver shavings, and
garlic - there was few that it couldn't outright kill, banish, or
exorcise, and whatever it couldn't they instead were certain to feel
the blasts.
Much like the troll's body, jerking and flopping in both
nerve death and rebirth, as Frank unloaded all six chambers of the
gun into his body. Laughing gleefully, letting the wheels tear the
grass apart, Frank allowed the troll to regenerate and rise up just
enough so he'd feel it as he let The Roadbuster slam into Dash,
spinning and tearing up the carpet in the empty lobby as the troll
wobbled to his knees, waving a large hand.
"I...ugh, I think I'm go-RORGH!"
He flipped head over heels as Frank hit him a third
time, cackling.
The first thing Dash realized was that he hurt all over.
Secondly, he was alive. Third, his head was being cradled on a pair
of slim, well-formed thighs, a soft hand gently stroking at his
cheek. Opening his green eyes, the troll grinned toothily before
rumbling, "I'm glad I died. It's not everyday I get to meet an
angel."
Daywatch Dawn smiled beautifully and continued to stroke
the troll's temple, "Frank told me this would work. He also
told me about your part in all of this, and what you had to go
through. Besides, your girlfriends are on their way now with your
van, apparently to congratulate you?"
About to get up, Dash thought the better of it and
instead groaned, his back still healing - his legs were going to be
paralyzed for a bit more time, "Oof. Well, I DID do a great job
of it. Anyway, the perks outweigh the risks. Y'know: decapitation,
disemboweling, paralysis, having my bone broken."
"Bone?" she blinked as Frank hunkered down
next to her, slapping her hand away and immediately administering a
rough, but thorough, physical. Checking his vital signs and jotting
them down in a leather-bound, small journal he kept in his pocket,
Dash grunted and suffered through the clinical check-up, by now
thoroughly patient with Frank's processes.
Eventually satisfied, Frank slapped him on the chest and
said, "G'wan and git up, idjit. Yer legs work again, and I'm
satisfied you're you. I called Rosette and Juliette to come pick us
up, and Greasy's lost his fool mind and is driving over here with
some of those kids of yours to drive the Die Nasty back while he
recovers The Roadbuster. Heh. Anyway," he helped the troll to
his feet, who resisted only a little, reluctant to leave his
delectable pillow, "How do you feel?"
"Like you freakin' shot me with the Benediction
again," Dash coughed as Frank dusted his back off, "Dude,
did you shoot me again? Jesus Christ, all I remember is being hit
with The Roadbuster-"
"Oh, he only shot you the first time he hit you, he
didn't shoot you the other time he-OH!" Frank swatted at her,
cutting off her remark.
Dash cast a baleful eye at Frank as he turned to face
him, "You hit me what many times?"
Frank grunted, "You were insane. I did what I had
to do. Hey, you're okay, aren't you? It's in my clinical,
professional opinion that what I did was exactly what was needed at
the time."
Dash chuckled, all good nature once again as he clasped
his smaller friend on the shoulder, "Well, I guess all's well
that end's well, yeah? Besides, I'll consider it the balancing
factor for me gettin' new interns!"
"Bah, interns," Frank frowned, "That is
the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard. The Shop having interns!"
Dash blinked, "But, Frankbro...it's free labor!"
Frank frowned, stroking at the stubble on his chin
before a slow smile crept along his brown features. He began to
chuckle, low and evilly, and the Daywatch suppressed a shudder at
what kind of errands he was already thinking up for the young
ex-assassins.
Dash looked around, realizing they were in one of the
hotel rooms on the second floor - a luxury suite. While they were on
a queen-sized bed, there was also a private bathroom and living room
area, as well as a tiny kitchenette. A strange bit of memory flitted
across Dash's ever-regenerating brain and he realized with a start he
had been there before, though years ago, back when he was still
human. Wondering at this, Dash gingerly made his way towards the
bathroom to handle his own private business, leaving the two humans
to the kitchenette segment of the living room.
Frank hummed happily as he found a coffeemaker and a
fresh, unopened can of coffee grind. Radiating a calm happiness, he
set about making a fresh pot, setting up three Styrofoam cups, fresh
cream and sugar on the small bar. Ignoring the alcohol, he rummaged
around the glass case for stirring sticks and other accouterments he
deemed worthy for the post-battle coffee he was going to enjoy.
Sidling up next to him, her Daywatch outfit resplendent
in the early morning light, Dawn watched him as he happily and
quietly rummaged about, a part of her finally able to process all she
had witnessed.
The man who had helped kill one of the greatest threats
on the face of the planet, who snarled in the faces of demons and the
dark denizens of other dimensions, was happily humming brightly as he
watched the pot fill, a look of contentment and accomplishment set on
his face.
She leaned back against the bar and kicked a booted
foot, wondering at what to say. Dawn wasn't a woman given to
unnecessary conversation outside of her scholastic ventures, ever and
always curious and interested in knowledge, not just of magic but of
everything. A true DeFerens, she didn't abide by the idea that Magi
should be defined by their Magia, and studied anything that scratched
her educational itch.
It was what enabled her to understand energies beyond
the magical, and in acquiring lore and knowledge did she learn of the
Demonsidhe, the illegal and infamous drug that had thrice since
nearly crippled the Order and plunge the world into war.
"Yet it never seems to go away, huh?" Frank
grunted, handing the surprised young woman a cup, "No, I didn't
read your thoughts - that'd be against my ethics as a psionic. Naw,
lady, yer tired and not thinking straight. Literally, your Magi
training has come undone...you should get yer head back on before the
Grand Magus shows up, y'know?"
She harrumphed and took the cup from him, sipping at it
gently, surprised to find it exactly the way she liked it - black
with two sugars and a hint of mint, "How did you-"
"Now THAT I did read your mind for," Frank
chuckled wickedly, enduring the good-natured slap she gave his
shoulder. For awhile the two, temporary Darkwatch and newly ascended
Daywatch, shared a cuppa and simply enjoyed the morning, the sound of
the taps turning on alerting them to the hot shower Dash was taken,
followed shortly by a loud, baritone rendition of O Fortuna.
"You listen to that style of music?" Dawn's
electric blue eyes flitted to Frank's own chocolate browns, finding
herself unable to come up with anything better for conversation.
"...you're not used to this, huh?" Frank
laughed gently, holding a hand up to forestall her immediate
response, "I know you're green as Hell, but not to actual
fightin'. I mean killin'. What we do, what we did...you've never
seen anything like that, huh?"
With nothing better to say and woman enough to admit her
own shortcomings, Dawn shrugged. Frank laughed and nodded, "Yeah,
good answer. Yeah. This is the world of the Darkwatch,
darlin'...and the Daywatch. We're the ones who get to play with
madness, to dance in the dark. We're also the ones who get to play
ambassador to all the wicked things, to ensure they know we're not
just fucking around here on our little mudball of a planet.
At least, that's what we WERE for," Frank took a
long sip of coffee before continuing, "Now, the Watch is there
to ensure the other Magi don't get it into their heads that they can
become Gods. The gloves came off during the Havoc, y'see...and the
one thing no one wants to point out is the power spike the whole
world got from it.
Those of us who survived have access to the ability to
shape reality with our will, now. But there's so many wills...and
thusly do people like us become involved. The Grand Magus' personal
assassins. The bodyguards, protecting the rest of the world from our
very own community. Fun, huh?"
Dawn thought on that, simply enjoying the camaraderie.
She had survived an ordeal, and was now being counted as an equal, a
confidante, of the Shopkeepers and it was not an honor she was going
to waste.
"...who are Rosette and Juliette?" she
smiled, a fleeting and beautiful thing, "Are they really his
girlfriends, as you said earlier?"
Frank waved his coffee cup around, grinning, "Two
monster-genes, a mermaid-girl and a Rakshasa-gened. A
tiger-humanoid-girl-thing...got three sets of tits. Both of 'em are
pretty in their own way, though Rosette hates the fuck out of me.
It's not that they're lovers or anything, but I can already tell -
he's gonna be a-courtin' 'em soon, and I KNOW they got eyes for him.
As is, it's a normal thing amongst the monster-gened to take on
multiple lovers and such, especially if they're from their previous
human lifetime or are of a incompatible gene-type. While it's not
like monster-genes can only sleep with their own type, but there are
only limited crossbreeds...and most frown upon it, since a Chimera, a
monster with multiple types, lacks the concentrated punch of a
single-type monster-gene. Fun stuff, huh?
Anyway, they hate it when I call them his girlfriends,
and he'll rail on me 'bout it but all three of 'em ain't stoppin'
me," Frank chuckled, draining his cup and replacing it with
another.
Dawn worried at her bottom lip, almost distracting Frank
with the cuteness as she looked to the side and bounced her pert rump
against the bar, "Well, that's certainly interesting. Y'know,
there's something that's bothering me...the Shop is secure, right?
How did they kidnap Dash in such a manner?"
Frank barked a harsh laugh, once again looking like his
usual curmudgeonly self as he gave her a grin full of dark delight,
"Yeah. Ohhhhh yeah. I ain't of a mind to tell you how, but I
can tell you 'bout the aftermath~! The High Murder who jacked Dash
didn't get far. The Grand Magus told me himself, before the Trial,
that she got nabbed and shipped back, senseless, to the Shop. Suffice
it to say she's under wraps, and I'll be seein' to her indelicate
administrations m'self. Hell, Dash might wanna get in on the action
too, after we rest up...and this time around, it's gonna take me a
bit of healin' before I'm up for anymore serious action. The
Overdrive, y'see...and I used a LOT of it this time around. Shit,"
he frowned into his coffee cup, his thoughts his own for a bit.
Dawn, feeling the need to give him a little space,
stayed quiet and swirled her own coffee around, delighting in the
taste of it on her tongue. Hearing him sigh happily, she looked over
at him and asked, "I have one last question, Darkwatch
Todd....no, Generalist Todd? No one went down and got you out of the
cell for the Trial, and you somehow got around Jerome's last attempt
at stalling you, what with teleporting you to a new cell and keeping
you disoriented...how in the WORLD have you been doing that? Somehow
escaping that trap, but getting out of the cell despite how we've
swapped locking spells, mechanisms-"
Frank chuckled, "Wellll...funny thing that you
mentioned it. There's all sortsa fun ways of gettin' out of a cell
like that, but this time around? I used a way-old trick of mine, and
I'm sure if you go and look you'll find a large humongosaur,
fat-assed friend of mine sleeping his hairy self away on that leather
couch I left there. I swapped places with the jerk as he was passing
through Rancho again."
Dawn blinked, "Why in the world did you do THAT?!"
Frank frowned, thinking back on the wonderful dream he
had, of Aphrodite, the goddess delighting in him, her mouth sweet and
full and beautiful beyond compare.
Carrying the goddess in his arms towards her bed, the
dream flowing seamlessly from in front of the Shop to her own private
rooms within the Asture cult's compound, he lay her down upon a bed
of solid foam, her red hair stark against the samite sheets.
His lips lingered on the crook of her elbow, the
sides of her neck, his tongue thrashing and eliciting moans of pure
ecstasy from her as they undressed each other, the details too real,
to specific to be a dream. He chuckled, his warm breath teasing her
bitten neck.
"What?" She whispered. Though she inspired
love and was beloved, there were only a very few of whom she wanted
their love to be natural. To hear the voice of the goddess was to be
enraptured, and though Frank's will had proven time and again to be
stronger than the ensorcellment, she still whispered or used
telepathy out of respect.
He smiled at her, cupping one of her full breasts for
a moment before tweaking at her nipple with his large fingers,
drinking in the sound of her moan, "Nothin'. Just love you,
'Phro. Love all four of ya...but right now? Just love you."
He leaned in and kissed each eyelid closed,
delighting in her very presence as she accepted him and loved him in
return, as much as a goddess ever could a mortal, and then some. He
leaned in and kissed her, deep and hard, hungry and passionate, their
hands beginning to grab at one another, pulling each other close....
He sighed and stared at his coffee cup, thinking how he had pulled back and screamed as the goddess had turned into the incredibly dense, wide form, all bulky with muscle and fat, of Abbacus Keith, some of his fantastic facial hair still sticking to Frank's completely aghast face.
"Kiss me, lover boy!!!"
Frank awakened screaming and flailing, scaring the
guards as he began to revv up every single Combat magic spell he knew
at the same time.
"No reason. Just keepin' it balanced between
friends, 's all. So long as balance is kept," he chuckled and
saluted the new Daywatch with his coffee cup, "'s all that
matters to me~!"
In Los Angeles, there are hundreds of hangars,
clustering more the closer you get to one of the skyhooks piercing
the stratosphere.
At any one of these hangars, both thoroughly legal and
rather shady business deals, inbound and outbound shipping, and
private planes can be found coming and going, all logged in and
documented by the Department of Air Control, who claimed dominance
over the entire world's airspace from skyscrapers to low orbit. This
included the administration of the all-important skyhooks, the
smaller skyports, and transballistic traveling systems and
anti-gravity monorail system, having wrest them from the Guild of
Train Workers a few years back.
At one particular hangar, quite close to the L.A.
Skyport, the massive floating island settled down, invisible to radar
and every method of scrying as it had endured it's harrowing midnight
flight. The Reaper landed, her ground crew immediately seeing to the
island's landing needs and coordinating with the ground units dressed
in black, nondescript clothes - the hangar was one used solely for
such clandestine meetings, officially a condemned building on the
outside yet on the inside the latest equipment and gear was stashed,
electronics used to cloak incoming vehicles and stealthily exchange
information with the Department of Air Control's backup computer
database.
A limousine pulled into the mile-wide mouth of the
hangar as the captain of The Reaper identified himself to a
mask-wearing goon, the two immediately sighting each other as a
officer of their own groups. Exchanging information and
introductions, the masked second-in-command (with the given name of
"Aristotle") led the captain towards the limousine.
Holding the door open, Aristotle stood to the side as the Captain
looked on nervously. A brown-haired, pale-skinned Magi of the Valken
House, Captain Bernard Valken had been groomed specifically for his
ability to pilot The Reaper wherever the Patriarch had ordered
single-handedly, able to utilize the Magia necessary in order to
clone himself. It was his narrowness of focus that won him the
coveted and prestigious position as the Patriarch's personal pilot,
and even after death he would not fail his beloved lord. Tall and
broad-shouldered, he had been taught for many hours how he was to
appear to the person in the limousine, the financial backer of the
House of Valken.
Bowing low, he waited until a pair of polished, black
boots entered his vision to dare look up.
Wearing a double-breasted suit jacket and a black
corsage, the young woman, her long platinum hair tied into a
complicated braid and held in place with a pair of golden picks, was
the utter study of beauty. Small of proportion, she was nevertheless
stunning to the young Captain as she gazed about at her crew
interacting with his. Nodding at the efficiency of the scene, she
finally allowed her unsettling gaze to grace his. Her neck was
swanlike, graceful, and every part of her cream-colored three
piece-suit was tailored to her tantalizing form.
One eye violet, the other a storm-gray color, one he
couldn't quite place.
She smiled, her lips begging his attention as she spoke
with a crisp, clean voice, "You have done well, Magus. You have
done very well. Now please destroy The Reaper and the Demonsidhe,
both. The Valken House can expect payment in roughly one hour."
The Captain goggled at her, "Did you
say....destroy? The Reaper? And...the Demonsidhe, ma'am?"
The woman lifted a pale, platinum-haired eyebrow and
stabbed him in the broad chest with a simple rattan cane, "I did
not stutter, young one. The purpose of this exercise has occurred
just the way I planned it, and now we shall dispose of this...ignoble
substance. It offends me," she frowned, managing to make even
that seem like a study in feminine perfection, "The very idea of
bonding oneself to one of those...miserable creatures. So
inartistic, so...unaesthetic. Your Patriarch should have looked to
the Shop for lessons on such matters, hmmm?"
The Captain bristled, "Madame-"
Morrow Kind sighed, tugging at the white gloves he wore
over his slim, slender fingers, "Also, I'm not a woman. This
may be our first time meeting one another, but certainly you can do
better then assume?"
Bernard's eyebrows rose as he felt his entire world turn
sideways, "Oh...uh...yes. Sorry...sir."
Morrow smiled beatifically, noting the effect he had on
the young man. Turning back to the limousine he swayed slightly, his
feminine features taking in with delight the destruction of The
Reaper, and the nearly thousand demon souls locked within the drugs
in the belly of the miniature island.
The Captain, his eyes never leaving Morrow, leapt to
take Aristotle's place and close the door, kneeling down by the
window as it rolled down. Aristotle chuckled, adjusting the lapels
of his black button-up shirt before turning back to gaze upon the
workings of the ground crew and flight crew, all Order-trained magi.
Morrow beamed, stroking at the delicate point of his
knee, tilting his head slightly so his violet eye could see better.
"Hmmm...tell me, Captain. Do you think Frank would
be pleased with me, right now?" His voice shivered for a
moment, the air about his luscious mouth rippling with power,
"Or...vexed?"
The Captain frowned, jealousy stamped plainly upon his
face at the thought of a rival for Morrow's affections. Despite
that, he answered honestly, unable to lie to his new master, "No,
sir. I think he'd be whatever you want him to be."
Aristotle turned his face towards Bernard, chuckling
behind the blank, eyeless mask before turning back to the various
spells and projectiles hurtled towards The Reaper, watching with a
barely-suppressed shiver how the massive island of metal exploded,
imploded, and melted, torn apart by the living Circle created by
their people. Morrow's people now, all of them.
Morrow hummed a tune to himself, eyes blinking slowly
before watching the carnage, "Oh. Ohhhh. I simply can't wait!"
Tomorrow's
going to be a good day, one way or another.
****
The Generalist – Taboo 3:
Misfits and Mayhem (The Mayhem Arc)
