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wantstodirectSye Mckaseeh had been pushing the Demonic Convergence energy into twenty-seven different weak spots. Tony and Merlin had closed twenty-one of these spots by Thursday afternoon. Tony was stuck in traffic with Leah on their way to spot number twenty-two when something big with horns blew apart the Willingdon overpass. A couple of phone calls later, Tony knew that a metaphysical chain reaction had gone off; all six remaining spots had blown open.
Tony called the set and let everyone there know what was up, then he and Leah hauled ass getting back to the studio.
Tony arrived at the studio to find the full cast and crew of Darkest Night armed and ready to fight. Even Mason had grabbed the two-handed broadsword from the Scottish flashback episode and joined the defending forces.
Tony headed for the back door and drew the runes, ready to throw them in place around the next demon that tried to come in.
As he burned the fourth rune, he realized there was something not quite right about the ambient noise. The familiar background sounds of the city were less familiar than they should be. He’d nearly finished when those sounds separated into squealing tires and breaking glass. Less screaming than he’d expected, but there’d likely be time for that later.
Half a Honda Civic rolled past the edge of the building. Tony slapped the last curl on the fourth rune and dove behind the garbage can at the craft services truck, rune clutched in his left hand. The demon charged around the corner still holding the other half of the car.
What I’m holding beats what you’re holding…
… unless you decide to throw the car at me. Crap!
The twisted hunk of metal crashed into the gravel right in front of the garbage can, covering Tony in glittering bits of safety glass and slamming the can into his shoulder.
He didn’t think he made much of a noise, but when the dust settled, the demon stood just outside the door, eyestalks turned toward him, the bit on its face that corresponded to a nose twitching and testing the air.
Not good on a couple of levels.
The runes wouldn’t hang forever and a little experimentation over the last few days had proved that the longer they were in place, the less kick ass they became.
Also, the plan was to avoid the ultimate wizard and demon one-on-one for as long as possible. A Powershot would knock him on his ass and out of the fight, so if it turned out to be inevitable it had to happen late in the game.
From inside the soundstage, a girlie shriek. It sounded like Mason.
The demon’s head went up, exposing the get-Leah rune cut into its chest. Hard to tell, given the arrangement of its features, but it looked embarrassed. Maybe not Mason, then. Maybe some demons were less demonic than others. Grumbling under its breath, it stepped forward and was blinded by one of the mondo stage lamps a light tech had just pointed its way. It hissed and reared back, eyestalks withdrawing into the top of its head.
Tony had started moving as the demon moved. As it reared, he shoved the fourth rune into position.
It had time for only a truncated howl before the runes flared and it disappeared.
“Yes! One down!” He’d just started breathing normally for what seemed like the first time in half an hour when a clawed hand closed on his bruised shoulder.
Crap.
And fucking OW!
“Wizard.”
Talking? That was new.
Ignoring the blood dribbling down from the points of the claws, Tony twisted as far as he could in the demon’s grip. It looked sort of like a miniature Ryne Cyratane, although more Texas longhorn than Bambi’s dad, and it wore the most obvious of the Arjh Lord’s attributes sheathed up like a dog’s. Unlike the single rune on the chest of the first demon, the black runes carved into mini-Ryne’s chest were oozing blood over a pattern very nearly as complex as Leah’s. It seemed that slipping an arjh into another lord’s plan took more than a fake mustache, but since Sye Mckaseeh seemed to recruit from farther out on the horror show spectrum, that wasn’t really surprising.
“Help wizard.”
“Yeah. Fine. Release wizard!” The claws hurt as much on the way out as they had on the way in. “All right, if you’re going to… never mind.” The completely blank expression suggested he keep it simple. “Follow wizard!”
It’s a little like live action Zork, he thought as he ran into the soundstage, the demon hard on his heels. Eat snake. Thank you, that was delicious. I can’t believe Henry still has that game on his system. And not a good time for silent babbling, Tony. Pull it together.
They’d spread out within the confines of the set, turning the entire area into a seething mass of multicolored flesh and weaponry. Kate and Pavin were trying to loop a tentacled blue demon in rope while Saleen whaled on any bits he could get close to with his pipe. Amy, Lee, and Zev had another cornered. No, it had Zev cornered. No, they had it cornered. Elson was down on one knee, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. Mason was fighting sword to claw with the upper right arm of another of the chitin-covered demons yelling something that sounded like “Parry, thrust, riposte!” while Mouse silently fought the lower right, and CB dealt with the left side. Peter sagged against the wall, gasping for breath, arms wrapped around his torso. Merlin and Arthur weren't there; Tony hoped they were doing okay since he couldn't take the time to check on them.
Leah was nowhere in sight. Since the point of this exercise from the invaders perspective was to open the Demongate, CB had stashed Leah somewhere safe.
And a good thing, too, since both demons had a single, familiar rune etched into their chests. Or the equivalent area.
Tony pointed mini-Ryne toward the battle. “Fight demons!”
Mini-Ryne seemed less than enthused. “Help wizard.”
“Fight demons!”
“Guard gate.”
Left palm flat against the center of his back, Tony shoved him forward. “Fight demons!” Whether the pressure of the rune convinced him or he’d run out of excuses, mini-Ryne finally charged into the fray, and Tony raced for the extension ladder.
From the top of the ladder, he crawled out onto the lighting grid. Technically, this was not someplace he should be, but the grid was built to hold hundreds of pounds of lights and sooner or later, every electrician or light tech in the business ended up with his feet off the ladder or scaffold. Since he was neither, it was a good thing CB ran a flexible studio. Had demons been attacking a CBC studio, the world would be screwed.
He burned all four runes into the air beside him before he looked down.
Blue-and-tentacles had moved away from the corner. Amy had danced inside the tentacles and was pounding a second, foot-long ash stake into the main bulk of its body. Lee bashed the end of a tentacle against the floor with an antique mace, ducked a second, and slammed a third away from his head at the last minute. Zev stood to one side cocking a crossbow, a length of the yellow nylon rope tied to one end of the quarrel.
They weren’t bringing it down, but they were definitely holding it in place.
“Welcome to the set of Darkest Night,” he muttered, stretching along the grid. Vampire shows inevitably acquired a lot of interesting weaponry. He dropped the first two runes into place and was ready with the third when Amy screamed, her leg caught in one of the demon’s unexpected mouths. Distracted, Lee went down, blue coils around his torso. You don’t get to be distracted! he reminded himself. He was already doing the best thing he could do to help. Third rune down. Placing the fourth rune got tricky until Zev got off his shot, dropped the crossbow and tried to tangle the demon’s legs with attached rope. Adjusting for Zev’s weight, the demon jerked back against the first three runes. It shrieked as it brushed up against the power. As it charged forward, Tony threw the fourth rune into position.
“And action!”
Light flared.
Amy, Lee, Zev, and a meter of tentacle that had been reaching beyond the area the runes enclosed lay panting on the floor—although strictly speaking the tentacle wasn’t panting as much as twitching. Amy had both hands clamped against her thigh, blood seeping between her fingers. Rows of tiny holes in Lee’s jeans were beginning to darken. Holding the quarrel with the rope in one hand, Zev crawled toward the crossbow.
Focus on the demons!
Something grabbed his ankle.
He probably should have wrapped both arms around the grid and hung on, but that occurred to him a second late. Turning, Tony caught a glimpse of a familiar mouth with too many rows of black teeth between red scaled lips.
The sixth demon.
And then he was falling.
He curled in the air, landed on his right side, heard a bone snap. Since it wasn’t his skull, he was actually okay with that. Arm maybe. No. Higher. Something in his shoulder. It hurt to breathe.
Then it really hurt as red-and-scaly flipped him over and raised a hand, trio of ten-centimeter claws extended. As the claws swung down for a disemboweling stroke, Elson caught the arm, shoved his gun in the demon’s armpit, and pulled the trigger.
On a good day, which this wasn’t, Tony had no idea how many bullets Elson’s gun fired, but it seemed to go on for a while. Five, ten minutes. Or maybe his sense of time had gotten scrambled by the fall because there was no way the demon should have waited that long to bring its tail around and smack Elson off his feet.
On the other hand, its arm flopped uselessly, so who knew?
One arm flopped. The other was working fine. The first strike removed the front of Tony’s jacket and most of the T-shirt under it. For some reason, losing another jean jacket in the line of duty really pissed him off, and as the demon threw back its head and screamed in triumph, Tony grabbed his right wrist with his left, lifted the right arm to shoulder height then whipped it back and around while screaming out the words for the Powershot. Given the broken collarbone, the screaming was nonnegotiable. As his arm started back down, his right wrist slapped into his left palm, aiming the blast of energy that burned through red-and-scaly breastplates.
“Hey! Tony! Are you okay?”
“Sure.” He was standing. He was breathing. Everything from his eyelashes to the ends of broken bone grating in his chest hurt, but he’d deal with that later. Out of the corner of one eye, he saw something long and green whipping toward him. He ducked before he realized the tentacle was no longer attached.
Elson hauled him upright again. “Tony?”
“I’m fine.”
What he first thought was a disbelieving snort turned out to be the sound of another tentacle being ripped free. Mini-Ryne, his horns dripping dark fluids, sat on top of the remaining blue demon, removing tentacles and deftly avoiding the many mouths trying to take a piece out of him. His victory would have been more impressive had the demon not been wrapped in enough rope it looked like it had been swept up by some kind of deep-sea fishing net.
This tuna is not demon safe. StarKist doesn‘t want demons with good taste, they want…
“Tony! Focus!”
Right. Focusing. Keeping his breathing shallow and his right arm supported by his knee, he turned just his head toward the only surviving demon. Mini-Ryne seemed to have eaten his way through to the life-sustaining bits and was now clearly sitting on nothing but meat.
For a long moment, the loudest noise on the soundstage was enthusiastic chewing and swallowing.
“Did we win?”
All eyes turned to Mason who was crawling out from behind the upturned chaise lounge. When he looked up and realized he was the center of attention, he tried to pull the sleeve of the camouflage jacket up over his bare arm. “Well?” he demanded petulantly as he realized the sleeve wasn’t going to stay. “Did we win or not?”
The only demon in the room seemed to be on their side.
“Yeah.” Tony sucked in as much air as he could, hoping for enough volume to carry over the rising tide of sound. “It looks like we did.”
“There is still a demon to deal with,” CB told her. “Not to mention the mess.”
“Wizard!”
“Whoa!” Amy’s head whipped around so fast her hair separated into bicolored layers. “This one talks?”
“Yeah.” Tony shifted position slightly and regretted it a lot. “He talks. What do you want?”
It was hard to tell because of the gore encrusting his face—plus Tony’s vision was a bit wonky—but mini-Ryne looked worried. “Demongate?”
“Safe.” Frowning hurt, too. Quel surprise. Not. “At least I think…” He turned to CB who took three long strides and dropped to one knee beside him.
“If you cannot send this creature back, Mr. Foster…”
“I can do it.” It might be the last thing he did for a while, but he figured he had enough left in him to draw four final runes. Let’s hear it for endorphins. Yay endorphins. As long as he didn’t have to hurry. Or, apparently, stand up. “Uh, Boss? Little help.”
The big difference between being lifted onto his feet by Henry and CB was, well, about a foot vertically and at least that much horizontally. CB was a big guy and Henry was…
Henry wasn’t.
That meant something. Tony frowned. Winced.
“Ms. Burnett is outside in my car.” CB’s voice was a low growl against his ear. “Parked up against that outside wall…” He nodded across the soundstage to the wall closest to the gate. “… she is close enough to the gate and to you that her own metaphysical signature should be masked but able to make a fast getaway should we have lost this fight. I doubt very much that any demon would have been able to catch her.”
“Drove the Jag today?”
“I did.”
"And she’s going to stay out there… ?”
“Until one of us goes and gets her.”
“Demongate.”
“I told you, she’s safe.” Hang on. That wasn’t a question. The first time the demon had asked. This time…
“Would whoever’s been calling for me, please shut the fuck up. I’m not deaf, and I’m moving as fast as I can.”
Most of his weight still on CB’s arm, Tony turned in time to see Leah stop walking and raise a hand to her nose. The other hand was tucked under her clothes, pressed up against the skin of her stomach.
“Oh, wow. It stinks in here. Smells like offal and peppermint with the faintest hint of sulfur.” She frowned over her hand at Tony. “You had to ash one?”
“Yeah. Leah…”
“Demongate!”
“What the hell?” She jumped back, then stopped and blushed. “Right. This is the one that’s here to help and…”
When she stopped talking, Tony turned and stared at mini-Ryne. Standing on the partially eaten demon, he was, in turn, staring at Leah. His eyes were black, lid to lid, and even six meters away, he could see his reflection burning in them.
A heartbeat earlier, Tony would have denied any ability to move without help, but he pulled free of CB’s hold before Leah’s lips started to form the question and was standing in front of her before she asked it.
“Lord?”
“Boss!” Even as a physical barrier, he sucked right now, but when Leah tried to go through him instead of around, it gave CB enough time to grab her arms and hold her in place. Tony was pretty sure he was still standing, not exactly upright, not unless the studio had acquired a recent lean to the left, but standing. As he tried to straighten, he caught sight of Elson beginning to move.
Circle of yellow rope dropped around the demon’s shoulders.
Elson in the air, then crumpled motionless against the base of the wall.
Lee on one knee, one of the demon’s arms wrapped round his throat.
Amy’s scream lingering.
And the tableau froze.
It happened just that fast.
Ryne Cyratane smiled, now clearly in control of mini-Ryne’s body, his attributes no longer sheathed. “I think we should talk trade, Wizard.”
“Trade?” It took a moment to sink in. Finally, he dragged his gaze away from the six inches of detached claw protruding from Jack’s chest and shoved his reaction behind old familiar shields. “You want to trade Lee for Leah?”
The demon looked confused. “Who?”
“Her!” Tony jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
“Ah. That is not the name I knew her by when she was my handmaiden, my priestess, my love.”
Leah leaned toward him, her arms angling back in CB’s hold. “I am not your love!” she spat, tossing a curl of hair back off her face.
“Am I not?” He didn’t seem too upset by her reaction. “Do you not remember…”
“I remember that you slaughtered my entire village!”
Hang on. “You said you were over that,” Tony reminded her.
Her shrug was a bit truncated given her position. “Yeah, well, you were right. Maybe I still have some issues.”
“So if CB lets you go?”
“I’d be in his arms in a heartbeat.” No need to define whose arms. “Sorry. It’s a built-in response, and guess who built it in.”
The Arjh Lord cleared his throat. Tony turned to see Lee fighting for air, clawing at the arm around his throat. “You don’t seem to be taking this seriously, Wizard.”
“Stop it!”
He loosened his grip just enough for Lee to draw in a painful sounding breath. And then another. Tony breathed in with him. In. Out. Finally, clutching the demon’s arm with white-knuckled fingers, Lee wheezed, “I’m so fucking tired of being the designated damsel in distress.”
“Yes.” Ryne Cyratane smiled down at him. “I can understand that.” Even while wearing a body not his own, there was such understanding in his voice that Tony had a sudden epiphany about how he’d convinced Leah’s people to worship him. Lee actually looked comforted.
“Okay.” Tony cleared his throat and tried to sound a little more like he was in charge of the situation. “If we trade—Lee for your ex-handmaiden—then you’ll kill Leah the moment you get her and the Demongate will open and you’ll be here in the flesh, not just riding in the flesh of one of your arjh.”
“Yes.”
Tony fought the urge to preen under the Arjh Lord’s approval. “This was your plan all along, wasn’t it? You used Sye Mckaseeh as camouflage—while we were concentrating on her, you could slip in unnoticed.”
“No. I took advantage of the situation when I had time enough to mark this body as a vessel rather than merely as mine.”
“A spur of the moment kind of thing, then? With the added benefit of pissing off the ex?”
“As you say, an added benefit. And why should I not reclaim my handmaiden and then this world?”
“Because I’ll stop you.”
“The man dies now in front of you. Or later with you.” The amount of bone necessary to hold up his borrowed horns, kept the Arjh Lord from frowning very deeply. He tightened his grip. “Choose.”
Lee’s face began to purple, green eyes bulging. He clawed at the demon’s arm, head immobile, body twisting and thrashing.
"I’ll trade!” Tony wasn’t positive they’d heard him, but Amy stilled, Lee began to breathe again, and the demon beckoned with his free hand.
Tony turned just far enough to meet CB’s eyes. He had to offer Leah to the demon, so this whole thing fell apart if the boss kept hanging on. Forcing his right hand high enough to close his fingers loosely around Leah’s forearm, Tony saw CB’s gaze flick, just for an instant, to his broken collarbone. Broken on the right side. Come on, boss. If I’m using my right hand for this…
Then, although he hoped it looked like he was jerking her away from safety, he hung on as Leah stumbled forward pushed by CB, the movement turning them both back to face the demon.
This demon was not Ryne Cyratane. The body was merely a meat puppet controlled by the Arjh Lord’s energy. Back in Leah’s condo he’d called energy into him. Called his own energy back. Called the fire.
These days, if he wanted something to come to him, it came. It took next to no power and it took almost no thought.
It came regardless of any solid object that might be in the way.
As Leah stepped out in front of him, Tony held his left palm against the small of her back and concentrated. Focused. Called.
The energy that was Ryne Cyratane tried to come to him through the only thing in the room designed to hold demons. He went through the Demongate.
Leah jerked once, made a noise somewhere between agony and ecstasy, and dropped to her knees, her arm pulling out of Tony’s useless grip. On her knees, she curled forward, wrapped her arms around her stomach, and keened.
On the other side of the soundstage, the demon was merely a demon. Onyx eyes widened as the runes cut into his chest healed. He threw back his head and roared.
Still holding Lee.
[Up waaay late, sorry! Concluded in the comments. Non-preplay stuff lifted from Smoke and Ashes.]
Tony called the set and let everyone there know what was up, then he and Leah hauled ass getting back to the studio.
Tony arrived at the studio to find the full cast and crew of Darkest Night armed and ready to fight. Even Mason had grabbed the two-handed broadsword from the Scottish flashback episode and joined the defending forces.
Tony headed for the back door and drew the runes, ready to throw them in place around the next demon that tried to come in.
As he burned the fourth rune, he realized there was something not quite right about the ambient noise. The familiar background sounds of the city were less familiar than they should be. He’d nearly finished when those sounds separated into squealing tires and breaking glass. Less screaming than he’d expected, but there’d likely be time for that later.
Half a Honda Civic rolled past the edge of the building. Tony slapped the last curl on the fourth rune and dove behind the garbage can at the craft services truck, rune clutched in his left hand. The demon charged around the corner still holding the other half of the car.
What I’m holding beats what you’re holding…
… unless you decide to throw the car at me. Crap!
The twisted hunk of metal crashed into the gravel right in front of the garbage can, covering Tony in glittering bits of safety glass and slamming the can into his shoulder.
He didn’t think he made much of a noise, but when the dust settled, the demon stood just outside the door, eyestalks turned toward him, the bit on its face that corresponded to a nose twitching and testing the air.
Not good on a couple of levels.
The runes wouldn’t hang forever and a little experimentation over the last few days had proved that the longer they were in place, the less kick ass they became.
Also, the plan was to avoid the ultimate wizard and demon one-on-one for as long as possible. A Powershot would knock him on his ass and out of the fight, so if it turned out to be inevitable it had to happen late in the game.
From inside the soundstage, a girlie shriek. It sounded like Mason.
The demon’s head went up, exposing the get-Leah rune cut into its chest. Hard to tell, given the arrangement of its features, but it looked embarrassed. Maybe not Mason, then. Maybe some demons were less demonic than others. Grumbling under its breath, it stepped forward and was blinded by one of the mondo stage lamps a light tech had just pointed its way. It hissed and reared back, eyestalks withdrawing into the top of its head.
Tony had started moving as the demon moved. As it reared, he shoved the fourth rune into position.
It had time for only a truncated howl before the runes flared and it disappeared.
“Yes! One down!” He’d just started breathing normally for what seemed like the first time in half an hour when a clawed hand closed on his bruised shoulder.
Crap.
And fucking OW!
“Wizard.”
Talking? That was new.
Ignoring the blood dribbling down from the points of the claws, Tony twisted as far as he could in the demon’s grip. It looked sort of like a miniature Ryne Cyratane, although more Texas longhorn than Bambi’s dad, and it wore the most obvious of the Arjh Lord’s attributes sheathed up like a dog’s. Unlike the single rune on the chest of the first demon, the black runes carved into mini-Ryne’s chest were oozing blood over a pattern very nearly as complex as Leah’s. It seemed that slipping an arjh into another lord’s plan took more than a fake mustache, but since Sye Mckaseeh seemed to recruit from farther out on the horror show spectrum, that wasn’t really surprising.
“Help wizard.”
“Yeah. Fine. Release wizard!” The claws hurt as much on the way out as they had on the way in. “All right, if you’re going to… never mind.” The completely blank expression suggested he keep it simple. “Follow wizard!”
It’s a little like live action Zork, he thought as he ran into the soundstage, the demon hard on his heels. Eat snake. Thank you, that was delicious. I can’t believe Henry still has that game on his system. And not a good time for silent babbling, Tony. Pull it together.
Dinah |
Dinah was looping a length of nylon rope around her arm, trying to keep it handy and not in the way, and walking the edges of the set where Raymond Dark usually consulted with clients. Library, with desk, and various living room furniture, and chalk marks on the floor for marks, and lights above, and ohhhkay, creepier than expected. "This part's kinda like surveillance. Or a stake-out," she said nervously. "Only with less of a view." |
Jack |
"It's detective work, anyhow," Jack agreed. "We're just waiting for something bad to happen." He idly caressed his own length of rope. It seemed a flimsy weapon against a demon, but if it would work... |
Dinah |
The main thing was not to let it hurt anyone else, right? That wouldn't be so impossible. Hopefully. Dinah took a second to look at the books in the fake library, and muttered, "Sojourner's Journey? Who finds this stuff?" Then she realized: "Probably Tony." She sighed and put it back, perching on the big oak desk. "Kinda weird, how C.B. just takes this all in stride. But I"m glad Tony won't ever lose his job just for being a wizard." |
Jack |
"He's good at what he does." There was some pride in Jack's voice, yes. "I'd think a wizard would be a handy thing to have on staff. It's not like he runs around turning people into toads." |
Dinah |
"True!" Some people never got that, but then again, Tony joked about it sometimes. So no wonder. Dinah fiddled with her length of rope, and then reached out for a silver letter opener on the desk. Hang on. Did she hear something there? |
Tentacle Demon |
Well, that was a distinct possibility considering what was ambling on through the door. It was large and green and you better keep all Japanese schoolgirls out of sight because those were tentacles. Oh look! Things to kill over there! |
Jack |
"Stay back," Jack hissed at Dinah. He wasn't remembering that she was taller and had far more firepower; he was stuck on girl, must protect. He pulled out a small pistol and fired at the thing's eyes. |
Dinah |
Dinah had been about to say that, got briefly annoyed, then flinched at the gunshots before throwing a loop of rope with her TK at the-- Cthulu-man? ManThulu? Hoping to grab a tentacle. |
ManThulu |
Well, sure. But there were more than enough left to smack her back for that. And what was wrong with these people? Shooting it? It just wanted to The creature lurched forward after a roar of pain, lashing out to knock them both back. |
Dinah |
She reached out for the coil with her telekinesis and yelled, "Jack! Eyes!" |
Jack |
Jack landed on his knees, sliding across the floor in a blow that he suspected tore skin open. "Eyes?" he repeated back, not sure if she meant his or the creature's. He'd shoot again while he waited for an answer, aiming at the tentacle the creature had used to knock him over. |
ManThulu |
Well, it did have eyes. About five of them. It liked its eyes. Know what else it liked? Grabbing at their legs as they lay prone on the floor and screeching again at the gunshot. |
Dinah |
"Shoot them! HIS!" Dinah screeched, as one ankle was grabbed and yanked toward the monster. Panicked, she pulled back on the rope with her hands, stretching out the line taut on the tentacle then sent as many books as she could grab with her mind toward the thing's extremities. Whap whap whap whap flutter flutter whap! |
Jack |
Jack didn't waste time answering; he ducked low to avoid the flurry of books, set his jaw in a straight line, and fired as quickly as he could. He didn't know if he could find the eyes among the flailing tentacles, but he could try. |
ManThulu |
He got lucky in hitting one of the eyes, drawing a whimper form the beast. It was wounded and sad and needed a hug! Won't you hug it with it's tentacles? The creature, flailed the tentacles about, all directions to drive the books out at them and anything else nearby. |
Dinah |
Dinah braced herself on the floor as it flailed even more, and stomped her foot down on the tentacle holding her foot. "YES! Go, Jack!" And staggered to her feet, panting for breath. How to restrain it? Or even kill it? She looked upward. Beams. And threw one end of the rope over a beam, grabbing it as it dropped back down, and pulling. Keel-HAAAAUL! |
Jack |
Panting, Jack dropped back to watch what would happen. He reached his arm out to try to grab Dinah and drag her away. |
ManThulu |
The beast just sort of stared at a tentacle that was pulled up into the air. Okay, that was weird. Time to kill! |
Dinah |
"Okay, not---" Duck! "Working, and--" Dinah took a breath, and concentrated. Easier if they were all in one place, like moving one thing. Yank. Yank. Yank. YANK. Grabbing at tentacles in bunches with her TK, and holding them in place with an effort. "Jack-- rope--" |
Jack |
"Rope," Jack agreed, and took his own length of it. Dodging the waving tentacles, he quickly wove it around the tentacles to bunch them together like straw in a bale, and tied a quick, efficient knot. If it would hold -- |
ManThulu |
The monster bellowed in rage, struggling against the rope to no avail. It was going to eat them once it was free. Eat them, bones and all. |
Dinah |
Dinah collapsed on her butt, panting with effort and slowly ungritting her teeth, then grinned up at Jack. "We did it!" She grimaced at it. "Euuugh." |
Tony |
With the demon restrained, it was quick work for Tony to draw the four runes and send it back home. Then he ran towards the sound of battle. It seemed the other demons had arrived. |
Arthur |
Days upon days in Vancouver, and Arthur was sort of starting to get used to all of the machinery and otherwise unfamiliar things about the premises. Which... didn't mean the prop room was any less confusing. It was that Arthur had a lot of experience doing searches, or he'd be banging his head off of something by now. He rifled through something shaped like a cube and something shaped like a bat's head. At least that was comfortingly familiar. "Make sure we get every inch of this place." Because demons were just going to jump out and shout 'boo', otherwise, Arthur. |
Merlin |
"I don't think it could hide in the small areas,' Merlin shot back, dutifully on his knees anyway as he peered under a table at what looked to be a severed head. Creepy. |
Arthur |
"And what tome did you get that from?" Arthur had to ask, nudging something that... moved. |
Merlin |
Merlin looked back at him and raised an eyebrow at that. "You saw them, they're hardly small creatures." |
Arthur |
"It's magic," Arthur told him, looking over towards him. "You're telling me it can't make big things small?" That... might have been an actual question. |
Merlin |
That got Merlin to pause for one thoughtful moment. "I've certainly never tried it before. Where would all the extra go?" |
 Demon |
Sadly this deeply philosophical conversation was cut short as something rather smelly and boar-like--if a boar walked on two legs and had spikes for hair--lurching through one of the doors. Perhaps this was karmic revenge for all those hunts. |
Arthur |
If it was karmic revenge for all those hunts, then it certainly wasn't Merlin's fault, considering how crap he was at them. Arthur wasn't one to philosophize on the subject, as he drew his sword immediately. "Get back!" he yelled. Stupid protective instincts. The boar let go of a noise that was truly - for lack of a better word - beastly. |
Merlin |
"Arthur!" Really, that man was going to end up dead as a doornail one of these days and Merlin would be utterly furious with him. "Keep it in one place." |
Arthur |
Well, if that occurred, Merlin would have to wait until his next reincarnation to do so, so that would at least give Arthur a moment's rest. Not that he was thinking that, far more preoccupied with advancing on the thing. It had a lot of spines that looked rather painful, but at least it seemed to be taking to Merlin's wishes quite-- And that's about when the creature came at him, and Arthur was forced to slide sideways to avoid its claws. Hooves. Big... sharp ends. |
Merlin |
Merlin frowned, not moving from his spot at various things of a sharp variety found their way into the air and sailing at the demon. He was handling his overly protective issues rather well, thank you! "You need a shield," Merlin called, sparing a quick look at him out of the corner of his eye. |
Arthur |
"You think so?" Arthur called back, stabbing at the thing's side and coming up with absolutely nothing but another swipe of a claw. Getting a chunk of metal stuck in his shoulder was, apparently, just making the thing angrier. Brilliant. |
Merlin |
Was this really so difficult?! The answer was yes, yes it was Merlin. Because this isn't on the BBC and needing to be wrapped up in an hour time. Shoving a piece of--what on earth was this? A plastic shield?--at Arthur, he tried to make the first rune. |
Arthur |
Now that wasn't a proper shield in the bloody slightest, but Arthur would snag it anyway, bracing it so it would sit between him and one more big clobbering fist that nearly smashed the thing to pieces again. He was not going to tell Merlin to hurry up. That would be stupid. Instead, he drove his sword into the creature's midsection, and hoped for the best. |
Merlin |
The second rune fluttered on over to the monster's other side, distracting it for just a moment before it roared it's distaste for being hit with a sword. "Just a moment..." |
Arthur |
"How long is this moment going to take?" Arthur had to holler back, because that just nearly got him kneed in some very weak spots. He could feel one of the creature's quills skimp over his arm as he dodged to the best of his ability. |
Merlin |
The third rune fluttered on to the spot behind the demon. "Almost!" |
Arthur |
Almost was nice. Especially since his arm was starting to hurt with the sting of what he was fairly sure was an as-of-yet minor wound. Still-- The creature turned, and roared at him, so he slammed the shield hard into his head before it could get any ideas. |
Merlin |
It was only a moment later that the last rune appeared in front of the demon's face. It bellowed again before disappearing with a faint pop of displaced air. Merlin was left staring rather oddly at the spot where it once was. "That was..." |
Arthur |
Arthur dropped the shield to the floor, mainly just to be rid of the extra strain on what was definitely an injured arm, and sort of... stared. "Yes, that was," he agreed, then cast a quick look over at Merlin. "No standing around. We have to see about the rest." |
They’d spread out within the confines of the set, turning the entire area into a seething mass of multicolored flesh and weaponry. Kate and Pavin were trying to loop a tentacled blue demon in rope while Saleen whaled on any bits he could get close to with his pipe. Amy, Lee, and Zev had another cornered. No, it had Zev cornered. No, they had it cornered. Elson was down on one knee, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. Mason was fighting sword to claw with the upper right arm of another of the chitin-covered demons yelling something that sounded like “Parry, thrust, riposte!” while Mouse silently fought the lower right, and CB dealt with the left side. Peter sagged against the wall, gasping for breath, arms wrapped around his torso. Merlin and Arthur weren't there; Tony hoped they were doing okay since he couldn't take the time to check on them.
Leah was nowhere in sight. Since the point of this exercise from the invaders perspective was to open the Demongate, CB had stashed Leah somewhere safe.
And a good thing, too, since both demons had a single, familiar rune etched into their chests. Or the equivalent area.
Tony pointed mini-Ryne toward the battle. “Fight demons!”
Mini-Ryne seemed less than enthused. “Help wizard.”
“Fight demons!”
“Guard gate.”
Left palm flat against the center of his back, Tony shoved him forward. “Fight demons!” Whether the pressure of the rune convinced him or he’d run out of excuses, mini-Ryne finally charged into the fray, and Tony raced for the extension ladder.
From the top of the ladder, he crawled out onto the lighting grid. Technically, this was not someplace he should be, but the grid was built to hold hundreds of pounds of lights and sooner or later, every electrician or light tech in the business ended up with his feet off the ladder or scaffold. Since he was neither, it was a good thing CB ran a flexible studio. Had demons been attacking a CBC studio, the world would be screwed.
He burned all four runes into the air beside him before he looked down.
Blue-and-tentacles had moved away from the corner. Amy had danced inside the tentacles and was pounding a second, foot-long ash stake into the main bulk of its body. Lee bashed the end of a tentacle against the floor with an antique mace, ducked a second, and slammed a third away from his head at the last minute. Zev stood to one side cocking a crossbow, a length of the yellow nylon rope tied to one end of the quarrel.
They weren’t bringing it down, but they were definitely holding it in place.
“Welcome to the set of Darkest Night,” he muttered, stretching along the grid. Vampire shows inevitably acquired a lot of interesting weaponry. He dropped the first two runes into place and was ready with the third when Amy screamed, her leg caught in one of the demon’s unexpected mouths. Distracted, Lee went down, blue coils around his torso. You don’t get to be distracted! he reminded himself. He was already doing the best thing he could do to help. Third rune down. Placing the fourth rune got tricky until Zev got off his shot, dropped the crossbow and tried to tangle the demon’s legs with attached rope. Adjusting for Zev’s weight, the demon jerked back against the first three runes. It shrieked as it brushed up against the power. As it charged forward, Tony threw the fourth rune into position.
“And action!”
Light flared.
Amy, Lee, Zev, and a meter of tentacle that had been reaching beyond the area the runes enclosed lay panting on the floor—although strictly speaking the tentacle wasn’t panting as much as twitching. Amy had both hands clamped against her thigh, blood seeping between her fingers. Rows of tiny holes in Lee’s jeans were beginning to darken. Holding the quarrel with the rope in one hand, Zev crawled toward the crossbow.
Focus on the demons!
Something grabbed his ankle.
He probably should have wrapped both arms around the grid and hung on, but that occurred to him a second late. Turning, Tony caught a glimpse of a familiar mouth with too many rows of black teeth between red scaled lips.
The sixth demon.
And then he was falling.
He curled in the air, landed on his right side, heard a bone snap. Since it wasn’t his skull, he was actually okay with that. Arm maybe. No. Higher. Something in his shoulder. It hurt to breathe.
Then it really hurt as red-and-scaly flipped him over and raised a hand, trio of ten-centimeter claws extended. As the claws swung down for a disemboweling stroke, Elson caught the arm, shoved his gun in the demon’s armpit, and pulled the trigger.
On a good day, which this wasn’t, Tony had no idea how many bullets Elson’s gun fired, but it seemed to go on for a while. Five, ten minutes. Or maybe his sense of time had gotten scrambled by the fall because there was no way the demon should have waited that long to bring its tail around and smack Elson off his feet.
On the other hand, its arm flopped uselessly, so who knew?
One arm flopped. The other was working fine. The first strike removed the front of Tony’s jacket and most of the T-shirt under it. For some reason, losing another jean jacket in the line of duty really pissed him off, and as the demon threw back its head and screamed in triumph, Tony grabbed his right wrist with his left, lifted the right arm to shoulder height then whipped it back and around while screaming out the words for the Powershot. Given the broken collarbone, the screaming was nonnegotiable. As his arm started back down, his right wrist slapped into his left palm, aiming the blast of energy that burned through red-and-scaly breastplates.
“Hey! Tony! Are you okay?”
“Sure.” He was standing. He was breathing. Everything from his eyelashes to the ends of broken bone grating in his chest hurt, but he’d deal with that later. Out of the corner of one eye, he saw something long and green whipping toward him. He ducked before he realized the tentacle was no longer attached.
Elson hauled him upright again. “Tony?”
“I’m fine.”
What he first thought was a disbelieving snort turned out to be the sound of another tentacle being ripped free. Mini-Ryne, his horns dripping dark fluids, sat on top of the remaining blue demon, removing tentacles and deftly avoiding the many mouths trying to take a piece out of him. His victory would have been more impressive had the demon not been wrapped in enough rope it looked like it had been swept up by some kind of deep-sea fishing net.
This tuna is not demon safe. StarKist doesn‘t want demons with good taste, they want…
“Tony! Focus!”
Right. Focusing. Keeping his breathing shallow and his right arm supported by his knee, he turned just his head toward the only surviving demon. Mini-Ryne seemed to have eaten his way through to the life-sustaining bits and was now clearly sitting on nothing but meat.
For a long moment, the loudest noise on the soundstage was enthusiastic chewing and swallowing.
“Did we win?”
All eyes turned to Mason who was crawling out from behind the upturned chaise lounge. When he looked up and realized he was the center of attention, he tried to pull the sleeve of the camouflage jacket up over his bare arm. “Well?” he demanded petulantly as he realized the sleeve wasn’t going to stay. “Did we win or not?”
The only demon in the room seemed to be on their side.
“Yeah.” Tony sucked in as much air as he could, hoping for enough volume to carry over the rising tide of sound. “It looks like we did.”
“There is still a demon to deal with,” CB told her. “Not to mention the mess.”
“Wizard!”
“Whoa!” Amy’s head whipped around so fast her hair separated into bicolored layers. “This one talks?”
“Yeah.” Tony shifted position slightly and regretted it a lot. “He talks. What do you want?”
It was hard to tell because of the gore encrusting his face—plus Tony’s vision was a bit wonky—but mini-Ryne looked worried. “Demongate?”
“Safe.” Frowning hurt, too. Quel surprise. Not. “At least I think…” He turned to CB who took three long strides and dropped to one knee beside him.
“If you cannot send this creature back, Mr. Foster…”
“I can do it.” It might be the last thing he did for a while, but he figured he had enough left in him to draw four final runes. Let’s hear it for endorphins. Yay endorphins. As long as he didn’t have to hurry. Or, apparently, stand up. “Uh, Boss? Little help.”
The big difference between being lifted onto his feet by Henry and CB was, well, about a foot vertically and at least that much horizontally. CB was a big guy and Henry was…
Henry wasn’t.
That meant something. Tony frowned. Winced.
“Ms. Burnett is outside in my car.” CB’s voice was a low growl against his ear. “Parked up against that outside wall…” He nodded across the soundstage to the wall closest to the gate. “… she is close enough to the gate and to you that her own metaphysical signature should be masked but able to make a fast getaway should we have lost this fight. I doubt very much that any demon would have been able to catch her.”
“Drove the Jag today?”
“I did.”
"And she’s going to stay out there… ?”
“Until one of us goes and gets her.”
“Demongate.”
“I told you, she’s safe.” Hang on. That wasn’t a question. The first time the demon had asked. This time…
“Would whoever’s been calling for me, please shut the fuck up. I’m not deaf, and I’m moving as fast as I can.”
Most of his weight still on CB’s arm, Tony turned in time to see Leah stop walking and raise a hand to her nose. The other hand was tucked under her clothes, pressed up against the skin of her stomach.
“Oh, wow. It stinks in here. Smells like offal and peppermint with the faintest hint of sulfur.” She frowned over her hand at Tony. “You had to ash one?”
“Yeah. Leah…”
“Demongate!”
“What the hell?” She jumped back, then stopped and blushed. “Right. This is the one that’s here to help and…”
When she stopped talking, Tony turned and stared at mini-Ryne. Standing on the partially eaten demon, he was, in turn, staring at Leah. His eyes were black, lid to lid, and even six meters away, he could see his reflection burning in them.
A heartbeat earlier, Tony would have denied any ability to move without help, but he pulled free of CB’s hold before Leah’s lips started to form the question and was standing in front of her before she asked it.
“Lord?”
“Boss!” Even as a physical barrier, he sucked right now, but when Leah tried to go through him instead of around, it gave CB enough time to grab her arms and hold her in place. Tony was pretty sure he was still standing, not exactly upright, not unless the studio had acquired a recent lean to the left, but standing. As he tried to straighten, he caught sight of Elson beginning to move.
Circle of yellow rope dropped around the demon’s shoulders.
Elson in the air, then crumpled motionless against the base of the wall.
Lee on one knee, one of the demon’s arms wrapped round his throat.
Amy’s scream lingering.
And the tableau froze.
It happened just that fast.
Ryne Cyratane smiled, now clearly in control of mini-Ryne’s body, his attributes no longer sheathed. “I think we should talk trade, Wizard.”
“Trade?” It took a moment to sink in. Finally, he dragged his gaze away from the six inches of detached claw protruding from Jack’s chest and shoved his reaction behind old familiar shields. “You want to trade Lee for Leah?”
The demon looked confused. “Who?”
“Her!” Tony jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
“Ah. That is not the name I knew her by when she was my handmaiden, my priestess, my love.”
Leah leaned toward him, her arms angling back in CB’s hold. “I am not your love!” she spat, tossing a curl of hair back off her face.
“Am I not?” He didn’t seem too upset by her reaction. “Do you not remember…”
“I remember that you slaughtered my entire village!”
Hang on. “You said you were over that,” Tony reminded her.
Her shrug was a bit truncated given her position. “Yeah, well, you were right. Maybe I still have some issues.”
“So if CB lets you go?”
“I’d be in his arms in a heartbeat.” No need to define whose arms. “Sorry. It’s a built-in response, and guess who built it in.”
The Arjh Lord cleared his throat. Tony turned to see Lee fighting for air, clawing at the arm around his throat. “You don’t seem to be taking this seriously, Wizard.”
“Stop it!”
He loosened his grip just enough for Lee to draw in a painful sounding breath. And then another. Tony breathed in with him. In. Out. Finally, clutching the demon’s arm with white-knuckled fingers, Lee wheezed, “I’m so fucking tired of being the designated damsel in distress.”
“Yes.” Ryne Cyratane smiled down at him. “I can understand that.” Even while wearing a body not his own, there was such understanding in his voice that Tony had a sudden epiphany about how he’d convinced Leah’s people to worship him. Lee actually looked comforted.
“Okay.” Tony cleared his throat and tried to sound a little more like he was in charge of the situation. “If we trade—Lee for your ex-handmaiden—then you’ll kill Leah the moment you get her and the Demongate will open and you’ll be here in the flesh, not just riding in the flesh of one of your arjh.”
“Yes.”
Tony fought the urge to preen under the Arjh Lord’s approval. “This was your plan all along, wasn’t it? You used Sye Mckaseeh as camouflage—while we were concentrating on her, you could slip in unnoticed.”
“No. I took advantage of the situation when I had time enough to mark this body as a vessel rather than merely as mine.”
“A spur of the moment kind of thing, then? With the added benefit of pissing off the ex?”
“As you say, an added benefit. And why should I not reclaim my handmaiden and then this world?”
“Because I’ll stop you.”
“The man dies now in front of you. Or later with you.” The amount of bone necessary to hold up his borrowed horns, kept the Arjh Lord from frowning very deeply. He tightened his grip. “Choose.”
Lee’s face began to purple, green eyes bulging. He clawed at the demon’s arm, head immobile, body twisting and thrashing.
"I’ll trade!” Tony wasn’t positive they’d heard him, but Amy stilled, Lee began to breathe again, and the demon beckoned with his free hand.
Tony turned just far enough to meet CB’s eyes. He had to offer Leah to the demon, so this whole thing fell apart if the boss kept hanging on. Forcing his right hand high enough to close his fingers loosely around Leah’s forearm, Tony saw CB’s gaze flick, just for an instant, to his broken collarbone. Broken on the right side. Come on, boss. If I’m using my right hand for this…
Then, although he hoped it looked like he was jerking her away from safety, he hung on as Leah stumbled forward pushed by CB, the movement turning them both back to face the demon.
This demon was not Ryne Cyratane. The body was merely a meat puppet controlled by the Arjh Lord’s energy. Back in Leah’s condo he’d called energy into him. Called his own energy back. Called the fire.
These days, if he wanted something to come to him, it came. It took next to no power and it took almost no thought.
It came regardless of any solid object that might be in the way.
As Leah stepped out in front of him, Tony held his left palm against the small of her back and concentrated. Focused. Called.
The energy that was Ryne Cyratane tried to come to him through the only thing in the room designed to hold demons. He went through the Demongate.
Leah jerked once, made a noise somewhere between agony and ecstasy, and dropped to her knees, her arm pulling out of Tony’s useless grip. On her knees, she curled forward, wrapped her arms around her stomach, and keened.
On the other side of the soundstage, the demon was merely a demon. Onyx eyes widened as the runes cut into his chest healed. He threw back his head and roared.
Still holding Lee.
[Up waaay late, sorry! Concluded in the comments. Non-preplay stuff lifted from Smoke and Ashes.]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:56 am (UTC)But with a hostage. He sucked in a breath, and clung to his sword, ignoring the remaining sting in his arm. "One more to go, Merlin."
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:59 am (UTC)like a good Mary Sueon not healing it--that was nowhere near his abilities at the moment without being on a terrifying island of Old Magic--but removing some of the sluggishness."Brechdan an weal d'feluac," He said, looking at Arthur's sword next.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 05:02 am (UTC)But he didn't have time to linger on that, understanding coming slowly but surely. He nodded, and looked back towards the demon, giving his now... somehow glowing - in some fashion - sword one more twirl before darting towards the back.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 05:06 am (UTC)"Hey!" He squinted, concentrating hard on forming a fireball like Nimueh had done. Once it was there, he threw it at the beast's head--above Lee--to get all the focus on himself.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 05:09 am (UTC)It also took his attention off the medieval prince, who was rather grateful all in all he hadn't worn Camelot reds that day, as he slipped quietly into position.
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Date: 2009-08-14 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 05:14 am (UTC)The creature's hold on Lee... weakened, as his attention was drawn entirely to the idiot, which Arthur supposed was some small blessing for the plan, if not to his ideas about Merlin's sanity.
It just had to let go a little more, and walk just a little closer - as it was doing now - to give Arthur the shot he needed.
Ah. There we had it.
He drove the sword up into the creature's back, angling it as he'd been taught many times over, up towards the heart - if the creature even had a heart - and then yanked it back out, viciously. To his satisfaction, it was at least covered in a large quantity of demon entrails.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 05:33 am (UTC)"Nice timing," Tony said. "Way to make an entrance."
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Date: 2009-08-14 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 05:43 am (UTC)That would be the 'oh thank fuck we're alive' adrenaline speaking.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 06:46 am (UTC)Because closer inspection proved that, minor though it was, the wound on his arm was definitely bleeding.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 07:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 05:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 06:00 am (UTC)"Not bad, considering," Lee said. He touched Tony's right arm gently. "I should be asking you."
"I'll live," Tony smiled. Was the world actually spinning or was it just Lee's touch?
Lee caught him before he fell over.
CB took over then, directing everyone to hospitals as needed.
"Don't need a hospital," Tony said groggily.
"Like hell you don't," Lee snorted.
"Wizard," Tony reminded him. "Just need to rest a bit - can fix it."
Lee still looked doubtful. "Can you make it to my dressing room?"
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 06:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 06:12 am (UTC)This is me.
This is everything else.
Everything else doesn‘t hurt.
I do.
Sudden, intense pain and he could hear himself screaming and then it passed and he really, really wanted a burger. He opened his eyes. "Food?"
no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 10:55 pm (UTC)