Issue #59 – Return of the Magi
Part 2
“You assholes!” Elle screamed at the Knights as they squared off with Occult. She had scooped the still dazed Duke up and was cradling the groundhog like a baby. “What did you do to him? How can you pick on a poor, defenseless rodent like that?”
“Just shut up about the stupid woodchuck.” Dana snapped, brandishing her sword in the girl’s direction.
“Hey. Leave her alone. I’m the dangerous one here.” Occult reached into her pouch and took out a twist of horse hair. Coming at the Knights head on would be a death sentence, her plan was to keep moving with teleports and strike them at opportunity.
Wayne chuckled at Dana’s expense. “Leave it to you to get worked up over the harmless kid.”
That was just about it for Elle. “Harmless?”
Before anyone could react, she reached behind her and produced a hand of cards from her waistband. Each one had a glowing sigil emblazoned on it. “Get him, boys!”
Wayne, Dana and Occult all looked briefly confused. Then a horde of gray blurs burst from the hole Duke in giant mode had dug. Two dozen squirrels boiled out of the tunnel, hurling their fuzzy bodies at Wayne with murder in their tiny eyes.
The Knight got the shield up, but not before a handful were already on him, scrambling up his legs and biting anything solid they came in contact with. The remainder were only delayed by the shield, streaming to either side to get around it.
Cursing and shouting, Wayne slid back twenty feet to escape, only to find his feet taken out from under him by a hump of rock that suddenly rose form the earth into his path. He landed on his back and tried rolling, but the full force of the squirrels were falling upon him.
Dana decided at that moment that Elle was, in fact a viable threat and turned to lunge at her with her sword. Two things foiled that course of action.
First, Occult took her distraction as an opening and swung her staff at the back of Dana’s knees. As the knight, staggered, trying to keep her footing, a force grasped the Sword the Defends and pulled it out of her flailing hands.
Almost immediately, the blade vanished in a wisp of eldritch mist and Dana found herself going down to one knee.
“Yes!” Jeremy exclaimed, then remembered why he’d done that in the first place. “Elle, get away from them, they’ll kill you!”
Occult stepped around in front of Dana and leveled her staff at her. “So you two are/were the world’s first superheroes. The Book built you two up as a much bigger threat, but I guess all the years and the turning evil broke that.”
Dana glared up at the face hidden in the shaded depths of that robe. All concealing robes seemed to be a theme in her recollection, going back through the ages. It used to just be those who were ashamed of what they did that hid their faces, now even heroes did. Heroes and villains didn’t make much different to her these days. Still…
“Some things don’t change.” Dana said coldly. “Like how every witch I end up fighting talks too damn much.” Without further preamble, she grabbed the tip of the staff and pulled it toward her, trapping the head under her arm.
Occult stumbled forward and Dana greeted her with a headbutt to the abdomen and when she doubled over from that, another to the chin.
“Get up!” She shouted at Wayne, but it was unnecessary. He was already getting to his feet with the Shield that Overcomes stretched out in a thin barrier over his entire body. Try as they might, the squirrels couldn’t climb it, much less bite through it. Beneath the shield though, he was bleeding from hundreds of minute scratches and gouges.
The first thing Dana noticed was wrong was that he didn’t offer any kind of partially witty rejoinder to her barked order. The next was how close he was getting to her. Since Morganna ‘awakened’ them, they kept their distance. Being too close was physically uncomfortable for them, touching was nauseating, and that wasn’t just something they said as a barb to the other.
But Wayne ambled, lock-legged, to her side and before she knew what was happening, his arm was around her and his lips were on hers.
The nausea didn’t last. There was something stronger there than the curse of the broken bond and it flowed through them like molten gold. Their first kiss in this lifetime had bought back memories, but one only bought back feelings; feelings they both thought were lost forever even though it never touched their conscious minds.
For a brief moment in time, they floated together, the gravity between them holding them together.
And then that moment was overtaken by broken hearts, missed opportunities, lifetimes spent alone and bitter. And finally, the night when it all shattered. A dark highway, a cruelty of fate. The thunderous cacophony of metal deforming, the scent of alcohol on the breeze.
They flew apart, opening up an easily ten foot gap between them on the walk, which confused their opponents even more than the sudden and inexplicable make-out session.
“I… have no idea why I did that.” Wayne said. He was listing on his feet, but all his wounds had closed.
Dana’s eyes widened. She knew exactly why. “Survival. That’s—“
“Look out!” Wayne slid past her, coming within an inch of brushing her, and reshaped the shield into its default concave triangle form. None too soon, as it turned out, because he intercepted a fusillade of rocks the size of human heads.
Instinct kicked in and Dana took the time to re-summon the sword, this time gripping it in both hands. They ended up back-to-back as an almost reflexive motion.
The ground trembled and dark gray shapes emerged from the churned up earth, inspiring the rampaging squirrels to disperse. The shapes resolved into a single beast; a man of stone standing ten feet tall with a high, conical head and spiked balls instead of hands. Webs of white smoke washed over its surface, making it look as if it were made of exotic marble.
Behind it, Jennifer and Theresa stood hip to hip, both with a hand outstretched while Theresa mumbled instructions to Jennifer.
Occult had recovered and stood to their left. Her staff was at rest, but she had some sort of notched, wooden disc in her hand.
To their right, Duke had recovered, so Elle had set him down and had drawn out yet another of her cards. Jeremy was behind her and further down the hill, unable and possibly unwilling to get through the hedge he was standing behind.
An odd stillness settled over them. It didn’t last.
“Thought you’d show up.” Occult suddenly turned and threw that disc into the air. It broke apart into a ring of runes composed of blue fire and aligned itself at an angle with the stone golem Jennifer and Theresa had summoned.
The runes hung in air a moment before flaring briefly and guttering out.
“I might not be a thousand years old, but I don’t have to be to know a counter-spell.” Occult said, before leveling her staff at empty air not far from the window Dana had been thrown against earlier. “Qué esconden las nubes ahora debe ser revelado.”
As if a fog was rolling away from her, the Manikin became visible. She carried no staff, but like Occult, she had a pouch on her hip for her reagents.
“Take care of them!” Occult shouted to the local magi. “I’ve got her.” She charged the construct, ready to unleash some cathartic violence one her doppelganger. The Twenty-ton spell was primed and ready.
But Manikin wasn’t human and dodged easily. The staff pounded a three foot wide crater into the wall behind her instead.
Back on the walk, the golem pounded on the shield with it’s piked fist to no avail, as Dana was hindered from launching an assault on Elle because she was forced to wrestle Jeremy for her sword every second.
Manikin watched in with a lack of interest. “This fight is only a distraction.” She informed Occult.
“Don’t you think I know that?” Occult whirled her staff for Manikin’s head and missed again. “Morganna seems crazy, but her crazy always leaves her at the advantage.”
Amazingly, Manikin caught the next blow, turning it aside with her forearm. “Then why are you here?”
“Because you and the wonder twins over there are trying to kill those four for not bowing to Morganna.” Occult feinted and then burned the horsehair twist she’d kept at the ready. Rose light consumed her and she vanished, only to appear again behind and to the right of her opponent.
Even Manikin’s mind wasn’t fast enough to intercepted her next swing, and the spell enhanced blow sent the construct face first into the crater Occult knocked into the wall earlier. She bounced off and fell backward, rolling in time to miss the return stroke which shook the earth.
She came up quickly and having learned respect for Occult’s budding bojutsu, kept her distance. “I thought I knew you. The Heir remembers you; the first host of Morganna. I thought you wanted your aunt back.”
“Yes!” Occult’s next strike was sloppy and she expected a counter that never came.
“Then why are you trying to stop this?” Manikin sounded confused, almost troubled. “When this is done, you will have your aunt back.”
At that, Occult stopped short.
***
“It’s opening!” Kareem heard someone shout.
The throng clustering around the tower had been focused on the jet coming to hover over a nearby lawn and disgorging the Descendants, but all eyes tracked back to the tower as the stones at the base began to shift and rearrange, forming a slowly expanding doorway. Dozens of palmtop cameras trained on it.
“Everyone get back!” A golden figure dropped down inside the police line—Facsimile, and she had carried Hope into the thick of things as well.
The crowd responded by pressing closer and shouting questions ranging from ‘what’s going on’ to ‘are you dating anyone’.
“This is not what ‘get back means.” Facsimile bellowed before looking to Hope. “Come on, do something.”
“Do what? Scare them and make them stampede each other?” Hope groused. She still wasn’t used to her new and, in her opinion, revealing costume and was trying desperately to cover up without drawing attention to the fact that she had something to cover up.
Facsimile, of course, ignored her discomfort, having no issue with the situation. “You’ve got that emotion thing now, use it to make them decide not to hang around here.”
“Common sense is not an emotion.” Hope pointed out.
If only, she considered, I could rule the world if I could give people common sense.
Easier said than done. A familiar voice intruded in her mind, but was more than welcome. Millions of ears of instinct, seventy thousand years of tribal development, and another ten of cultural influence are all conspiring to make what was common sense centuries ago the priority. Common sense has to be learned and conditioned—I’m not sure even I can impose it for long.
Kareem! Melissa sent happily. Where are you? Are you alright?
Out of uniform and in disguise. I’m in the crowd, trying to find a way to stop Morganna. Lisa’s aunt is still in there and she’s trying to help.
Anything I can do?
Unfortunately, you have the hard part: Inexorable is on his way down. I can’t touch him, but maybe his emotions are vulnerable like his senses are.
“Hey guys,” Facsimile shouted from Hope’s side as she gestured wildly to the cops. “Push ’em back! This isn’t some chump bank robber: we can’t fight as well if there’s a bunch of easy hostages.”
The police, unused to working with anything like the Descendants, hesitated, waiting for an order from a superior.
“I’ve got it!” Zero swooped down from above, wrapped in her blue cocoon of psychokinetic energy. She landed several paces from behind the police line and dismissed the energy while raising her hands. “Back up from the line, everyone, or this won’t feel good at all.”
The temperature dipped drastically all around her. Frost crept along the pavement at her feet and everyone’s breath started to come in puffs of mist. But the intensity of the cold was focused on the hasty cordon the police had set up.
Ferns of frost became free standing ice, hanging off the barriers and reaching out to one another on either side. In under a minute, the line between the police and civilians was filled with a chest high thorn-wall of ice crystals that radiated cold so deep it hurt. Students, cops, Hope and Facsimile alike gave it more than enough space.
Facsimile let out a laugh. “I guess that Zero isn’t in Fahrenheit or Celsius, but in Kegels.”
Zero blushed under her mask, glad no one else was nearby to hear that. “I think you means Kelvins.”
“Whichever. Alloy’s the science guy.” Facsimile shrugged.
Hope snapped herself out of the near-trance she’d gone into talking telepathically with Kareem. “Ephemeral says that Inexorable is coming.”
“That’s your cue to clear out guys.” Facsimile shouted to the cops. “Remember that guy that attacked Descendants Appreciation Day? He’s here and he’s not going to be any less badass.” Hearing this, the police didn’t wait to get direct orders and withdrew to the other side of the barrier, some of them returning to their cars for door breaching rounds for shotguns.
“Luckily, we do have some tricks he hasn’t run into before.” Codex said over the comm. At the moment, Chaos and Darkness arrived, the former carrying Codex herself and the latter using her powers to carry along a coffin sized aluminum case.
As soon as her feet touched ground, Codex set about undoing the latches on the case. “Provided I can get this thing set up in time, he might be in for a surprise. Fax, Chaos– I need you two to find Occult and help her out. Whatever fight she’s in, we need it to end fast because the only solution to this might be magical.”
The lid of the case came open on pistons, revealing tooled, black parts of some incomprehensible machine. Codex selected something that looked like a heavy-duty umbrella without the cloth and pulled it out. With all her strength, she slammed the top on the ground, causing the ‘umbrella’ to open and dig five curved spikes into the ground, forming a sturdy mount.
“Zero, I need you to slow him down. If you can manage it, seal the door with ice. If not, make the ground as slick as possible.” Next out of the case was a misshapen box that got attached to the mount, followed by a telescoping length of solid steel that locked into the front and a locking ‘collar’ that held it in place.
“Hope and Darkness, keep him confused. We’ll try to keep him off balance until Occult comes and were can temporarily depower him like before.”
Lastly, she attached and expanded a shiny, round, composite plate that slotted in over the rod. Some quick adjustments and some folding out of the hand grips later, and she gave the rig an approving nod. “I’ll be doing the same.”
“What is that anyway?” Hope asked in spite of herself.
“Just a little something I scavenged from the house defense system.” said Codex, aiming the device at the door. “ADS: Active Denial System. Literally an agony beam that puts whoever you fire it at in extreme pain. I’m dubious about it’s use as riot gear, but against an unstoppable, magically empowered man who wants to kill me? I’m willing to make some exceptions.”
About Vaal
Landon Porter is the author of
The Descendants and
Rune Breaker. Follow him on Twitter
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