Asia nodded and followed Mickey, then waited as he opened the exterior cover. The outside air was fully in her nostrils now as she scrambled forward as quietly as she could. As she exited through to the outside, she twisted her torso and reached up to grip the edge of the roof. Her body twisted at an inhuman angle, yet fully possible for a ferret, she pulled herself quietly up to the roof and scanned the scene. She saw the boys fighting the Harpy, but Ender wasn't among them. It took her several more moments to see where he'd gotten to. He was hunting. Assuming he'd caught scent of the other Demon, she slipped along the rooftop and followed him. As good as he was, backup was always nice.
Mickey dropped out of the window and watched as Asia went skittering up onto the roof. For a moment he wasn't sure what the hell she was doing, but then he caught sight of a dark shape scrambling along the power lines to the street and he recognized Ender's Channelled form. He could hear the sounds of inhuman screaming, grunting, growling coming from the side of the building. Things sounded like a right mess. Well, time to bring out ol' Sheila. He swept quickly to the trunk of his truck and, opening it up, brought out an ugly looking mangle of metal and wood. He'd designed and built her himself, and she'd been with him through a lot of ugly places. He let the trunk fall closed and heard a voice husk from above him:
"What do you think you're doing, little human?"
Rekjald let out a shrieking sound, half-laughing and half-screaming in pain. "Vaiii...ussssssss!" He wheezed as his wings spazzed out for the count and he went plummeting toward the ground. It wasn't far to fall by this point, maybe a good twelve feet, and Seth, feeling them falling, began scrambling to try and get on top of the writhing Harpy so as not to be crushed under him. But Rekjald had no intention of lying down on the job. As he felt the Were remove its teeth from his thigh, he reached out and grabbed Seth by the hair and shoulder respectively and sunk his own claws in where he could. Seth let out a stream of verbal diarrhea: fuckbuggerwankcocksuckingmotherfucker!!
Topher saw Morgan hit the Harpy with the full brunt of the hammer's head and winced a little as the Demon went spiraling away. Away and down. Topher lunged forward, on all four paws for a moment of charging force to be there when they landed. If he had any say, the Harpy wouldn't be allowed to get up and flap around a second time.
Morgan broke into a run much as Topher had, yet without the same speed. He trailed by several feet by the time they caught up with the Harpy and Seth. He didn't know Topher and didn't know how skilled he was at using the strength and bulk of his Bear form, but he knew that this Harpy was seriously regretting the attack now. Even as it dug claws into Seth, Morgan circled looking for the next opening so that he could bring more punishment to the Demon.
Asia continued to follow Ender without uttering a single noise to let him know she was there. She knew the Dryad, whatever it was, would be here soon. She didn't know which fight it would join, but it seemed at tertiary glance that the boys had the Harpy pretty much under control -- or as much as was possible. But where was Mickey? A bad feeling ran down her spine and she paused, cursing herself for not sticking close to him. She had been overzealous. It was too late to turn around and go back now, especially since she had no idea if he was alright or in trouble. There were only the two Demons right? She forged ahead after Ender but she just couldn't shake the bad feeling in her guts.
Mickey looked up with an unimpressed expression. The many-eyed form of the Seeker stood on top of the fence above him. "Fuckin' teleporters." He grunted. She smiled wanly and crossed her arms, the eyes in the hands folded across her chest swiveling 'round to stare at him as her face lifted up and away to where the fight with the Harpy was raging strong. Mickey got an unpleasant revulsion spike to life in his gut as those beady, unnatural eyes watched him while the damn head looked away entirely. Grimacing, he readied Sheila in his hands and set his heel into the pavement to brace himself.
"What exactly is that thing?" Vaius asked nonchalantly, her face still turned towards where Rekjald was screaming her name, at the mercy of three vicious breeds of Weres. Her lips curled in disgust. That would teach him to disobey orders.
Rekjald hit the ground hard, but his grip on the Coyote hadn't released even a fraction. Seth let out a wordless cry as they hit ground, the Demon's talons digging deeper into his scalp and shoulder, and with the jolt of sudden stillness, the hook in his shoulder slipped and got caught on something that Seth needed in order to move his arm. He scrabbled his feet, trying to find purchase, but without being able to wrench his body away so much as an inch, all he had were his claws -- and coyotes weren't known for their ferocious talons. He dug them into the Harpy's flanks none the less, "Fair's fair..." He grunted at the Harpy, grinning madly.
Topher had picked up a good 40km/hr in his dash across the lot and now came barreling in over the Demon. He trampled the bloody wing, a bit of tail and then, turning sharply, rose up on his back legs again and let out a huge roar. He was struggling not to full-shift, and could feel the fog of battle rage already rising in his heart. He fought to get it under control, and saw Morgan come barreling up after him, the mighty man shaking the ground with each step. He caught the other's glance, and felt himself sobered just enough to keep his shift firmly in Anthro, and then swept down a paw to strike at the damaged wing, and tore it from the socket, a few bloodied bits of cartilage still attaching it to the ribcage. Rekjald let out a hacking tumult of shrieking laughter and let out another cry of "Vaiusssss!!!"
Morgan swung his hammer into his left hand and pressed it down against any part of the Harpy he could inhibit while he did his best to wrench the claws out of Seth's body. He tried his hardest not to worsen the wounds, but it was difficult and he knew nothing about anatomy. Mechanics yes, anatomy no. If it seemed he was doing more damage than good, he would shift tactics and just punch any bit of Demon flesh that showed itself.
Ender leapt off the wire and four limbs out went sprawling through open air to scramble onto the telephone pole and swinging around the transformer, reached the top of the post. The smell of the Demon was faded. As faint as it had been originally, now it seemed disturbed – shaken or dispersing on the mild night winds. Scrunching his nose in disappointment, he perked ears, and looking down saw Asia hot on his tail. He shifted aside to make room for her on the post and hung his head down to talk to her without throwing his voice too far. "Good to see ya," he murmured.
Asia leapt and clung to the pole along with Ender and nodded. She paused and with some effort, responded in broken, tense English - which was all she could muster at best in Anthro form - "Where... Demon?" She scented the air even as her little beady Ferret eyes scanned the area all around them. How could it have just disappeared?
Seth was snarling through his crazed grin as Morgan's hoof-hand clamped down on the talon lodged in his scalp. Rekjald tried to fight against the strength in Morgan's grip, but something snapped in his busted shoulder and the whole wing went slack, enabling Morgan to pry one of the talons from Seth's body. Able to once again move his head, despite the considerable font of blood flowing from the wound and matting his greasy blond hair, Seth let out a yip of triumph, and shifted his clawed hand from the Harpy's flank to scrabble at his face for all his reach was worth.
Topher, seeing Morgan wrench the damaged limb to a point of disuse, circled around to the other side and sunk his teeth into a flailing avian leg, and bit down, cracking and shattering one of the bones, bits of Harpy bone shrapnel lodging in his mouth and causing him to drop the limb to wretch and spit the mass of bone marrow and fragments onto the pavement.
Morgan's half-human, half-Bison mouth twisted in a strange and unsettling way as he smiled. The Harpy's wing snapping and going limp piqued a certain pride in him, but it was short lived. The fight was far from over and while this thing was still alive, maimed or not, it was still too dangerous. He saw out of the corner of his eye, Topher rip into a leg, saw the torn shoulder where its other wing had been, and the thought that its flight capabilities were negated filled his brain. Now, they needed to negate its offensive abilities. Still gripping the useless wing, he twisted it and pulled with all his strength, trying to rip it from the Demon's hide. He didn't know how well or how quickly these nightmares healed, and he didn't want to take any chances.
Mickey answered by way of demonstration, and pulled the trigger. Sheila spat a spray of roofing nails soaked in a combination of antifreeze and gasoline at Vaius. The ever-watchful eyes saw the weapon fire before the nails were en route, and she blipped out of sight as the majority of the nails when clattering through the fence. He couldn't tell if any had landed prior to her teleport or not. Cursing, he turned to find her behind him, and kicking him in the jaw before disappearing again. This was what might be deemed an 'unfair fight'. But Mickey had been in the forces, and was used to being on both sides of unfair fights. He adjusted the loading chamber on Sheila, cocked the next round in and kept his senses sharp. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something moving behind the fence. Squinting into the dark, he pointed Sheila's muzzle at whatever it was and tried to get a clear shot.
Ender sniffed the air, and caught the acrid stink of the Harpy's blood, the iron-rich tang of Were blood just beneath it. It was hard to focus on the vanished Seeker with so much sensory noise. He shook his head. "On the move..." He replied, unsure of where she might turn up. He scanned the fight raging below and heard above the noise the sound of something being fired, a sick sort of 'twap' noise. Perking his ears he looked to Asia. "What was that?" he growled, low and mistrustful.
Asia shook her Ferret head and shot a glance back the way they came when the 'twap' resounded. "Mickey!?" she was able to utter before springing off the pole and racing back towards the sound, ignoring any danger she might be rushing headlong into. The few words of warning Meredith had given them resurfaced in her mind as she crossed the wires back to the garage. Stay in the light the Witch had warned them. It was too dark behind the building. If Mickey was there, he needed to get to a source of light. Or have one get to him. She studied the building as she approached at speed and tried to figure out if she could angle the exterior lights to better blanket the area. They needed all the help they could get it seemed.
Rekjald was thrashing madly now. Whatever mirth he'd had initially at the fact that three of these monsters were on him had subsided as terror took hold. Vaius had not come to help him. He began to wonder if she would come at all. Hyperventilating and in a great deal of pain, he felt the Bison snap one of his bones and he knew abject horror. Flightless! He willed his wings to flap, to move, one would not respond, and the other... A spray of blood arched through the air, splattering the Bear across the nose and muzzle. Letting out a terrified shriek he clung to Seth, spitting and eyes rolling in panic. His feathers puffing and his muscles rolling beneath his leathery skin, he began to flail and buck. Seth was wrenched about on the talon hooked into his shoulder joint and was screaming obscenities, the hook tore deeper into his cartilage, opening a view to his pectoral muscle through the blood that began to weep from the angry wound.
Topher fell back roaring as the hot blood splashed his face, shifting back to full human so as to better wipe the mire from his face, but finding it splattered over his hands just as badly. Letting out a sound of revulsion he scrubbed at his face, trying to clear his vision from the sting of salty blood in his eyes, and still trying to spit out the fragments of bone lacerating his tongue. At least half the blood he was spitting onto the pavement was his own, he was sure.
Mickey squinted into the dark, and the thing came closer. At first he thought it was a 1970s disco-queen: giant fro, huge bellbottom pants, loping gait... But there was a decided hue of green, even in the dark. Squinting, he tried to focus on the face and felt another hard kick slam into his back, right in the shoulder blade, knocking the wind from his lungs and the ground from under his feet. Gasping and flailing like a fish out of water he went up into the air, and came down in a bed of soft moss. Disoriented, he stared at the ground beneath his chin, scrambling for Sheila which had been knocked from his grasp. There was no moss here a moment ago... Somewhere it registered in a slow fashion, and Mickey followed the patch of it across the cement where he saw it creeping out from between two of the concrete blocks, somehow one with the bellbottoms of the mysterious stranger. Yet the creature, whatever it was, didn't come closer, despite breaking Mickey's fall. He got Sheila in his hand, and the air back in his lungs, and he rolled over onto his back, the weapon pointed up at the now empty-air.
Ender saw Asia dart off and belatedly registered her single, ejaculated word. With dawning horror, he took off down the pole, shifting into a full Anthro form to add to his speed, and took off in his ungainly hobbling Raccoon fashion around the side of the building sniffing the air constantly as he went. Come on, pick on someone closer to your own freakiness, Demon... He was calling out with his mind, endlessly grateful for his superb night-vision, yet still unable to pick up any visual sign of the Seeker.
Asia – not having any luck with repositioning the lights – dropped to the ground of the parking lot out back. On all fours, she stayed motionless, taking in everything she could with every sense she had. Slowly, she drew out her batons and with a flick of her wrist, extended them. That other thing was here. She could tell, even if she couldn't see it yet. What she did see however, was Mickey on a bed of moss, with some sort of crude firearm, and something she could only assume would be the Dryad they were waiting on. She spoke not a word as she waited for any sign of the Seeker. Once she saw it, she'd spring into action, batons whirling. She had no idea it could teleport, but hopefully she'd at least catch a glancing blow before it popped out of range.
Morgan was starting to get angry -- which is saying something, since he was so slow to anger usually. This Harpy was being a real pain in the ass, not to mention that the one stand-up guy he'd met in town thus far was being slowly ripped apart by the thrashing Demon. With a roar that sounded less primal than Topher's, but carried the same promise of aggression, he dropped his hammer to the ground and reached with two hands – which were starting to fuse fully as he shifted from Channelled to full Anthro form – to the Harpy's head. Wrestling it as best he could, he pushed it down against the hard pavement then proceeded to put all his weight, all his Bison strength, into pushing down upon it. He hoped to feel it compact against the ground and thus permanently steal the fight from the Demon.
Seth managed to wrap his arms and one leg around the flailing limb that was ripping him a new and unwanted orifice. Clinging tightly to it wasn't doing any damage to the Demon, which was regrettable, but at least it was keeping his arm attached to his body. He had no desire to start copying the Harpy's look.
Rekjald felt the pressure on his head and began hissing and shrieking in combination, frothing at the beak and staring with wild eyes, the pressure and strain in his adrenalin-fired muscles unbearable. He felt the darkness, the golden thread pulling taught inside his soul. He was keenly aware of how close he was to death. "Vaius! Lachesis ingai mod mekk hett!!" he screamed, a terrible hellish voice rising up from the coils he had come from. But despite his hellish strength and inhuman terror, the Bison was winning the battle, and Rekjald’s head went lower and lower to the ground, and then touched the cold pavement, and the pressure kept building, and he was shrieking at the top of his lungs, "LACHESIS INGAI!! VAAAIIUUUUUUU--" and with a sick ‘crunch’ his noise was silenced. Like a smashed melon or rotting pumpkin, his skull lay sagged against the asphalt, the skull crushed beneath Morgan's hooves, the brain mush within its shattered cage.
Topher saw Morgan somehow - impossibly - get even bigger, and fell silent, hands on his face, both stained in wet demon's blood, knowing with a dread in his heart that no action he could offer now would make any difference to the Demon's fate. Instead, he returned to full human form and scrambled forward, catching Seth as the flailing Demon limb fell limp, the life literally crushed from the Harpy. The wound in Seth's chest brought the bile up the back of Topher's throat and he gagged and swallowed, trying to disentangle the hook from the shoulder joint.
Morgan snorted, the rage still overwhelming him. He didn't really like to fight. He didn't like to start a fight either. But god be damned, if a fight was started with him, he will end it. One way or another. He didn't take joy in killing the Demon. In fact, he was sure if would lead to some major regrets later, but he did take solace in the fact that Seth wasn't in danger of getting torn asunder. He needed serious medical treatment, but he'd live. Or so he thought. It was only after looking up and seeing the fear in the eyes of the Bear, Topher, that Morgan realized he was still crushing Demon brain matter and skull into the pavement with his hooves. Pulling back, he sat on his haunches and shook the goo from his hooves. Silent. The dull, glassy Bison eyes staring out as the adrenaline dulled.
Vaius sat on the roof for a brief moment, watching Rekjald die. They would want to know why back home, and she needed to record it for the records. Once the life left him, she turned her attention back to the human. A Dryad had stepped forward to soften his fall. She scanned him: no, not a Warlock for sure...so why the sudden appearance of a Spirit? She didn't like it. Something was really not right here... She sat for a moment more, but then her Seeker nature won out and she blipped to the asphalt beside him. "Why do you have a Dryad?" She asked, watching the nail-gun swing round and blipping to the other side as he fired again. How irritating. Wasn't the talkative type, then...
Ender came around the far side of the building and caught sight of Mickey firing Sheila into empty air. Strange... Was he concussed? But then, no, before he could even finish the thought, there she was, just out of nowhere on his other side. It didn't even seem to be a lowered and raised Glamour. The way she moved... teleporting. Of course. He tossed a quick glance to see if he could find out where Asia'd stashed herself.
Asia was still crouched, watching. She saw the Demon appear at Mickey's side and then promptly disappear again in the blink of an eye to appear on the other side of him. She'd heard about teleportation, but never seen it. She guessed that this was the trick this thing had up its sleeve, but she didn't know how they'd combat it. She remained stock still and glanced around with her peripheral vision, seeing Ender at the edge of the lot. She kept him in sight as she waited for some sort of plan to gel in someone's mind. Preferably, before this thing killed Mickey, or them.
Seth was swearing like a sailor as Topher tended to him as best he could. But Topher's area of first aid expertise was that of a life guard. Seth was neither drowning, unconscious, nor had ceased to breath. Instead he was using very-full lungs of air to mouth every obscenity that had ever fouled the English language. His shoulder, a bloody tangle was still pouring red all over the concrete and while Topher had strapped the remains of Seth's torn-up A-shirt around the wound to stanch the bleeding, the blood was still soaking through the cloth. Topher looked up to Morgan and nodded in Seth's direction. "Hey, you a friend of his? We gotta get Seth some medical attention. This bleeding's bad..."
"What the fuck're y'talkin' 'bout Topher, y'sissy. Iss jus' a scratch, man. I'll be fuckin' fiiiine..." Seth croaked groggily, wincing and trying to force himself to stay present, fighting off the shock that was gnawing at his bones.
Meanwhile, behind the building, Mickey kept his back to the moss that had appeared to break his fall so the Demon couldn't get behind him, and kept Sheila primed and ready. Vaius came into sight for a flashing second three feet in front of him, then was above him hanging in mid-air, then to the right at a 90 degree angle. Long enough that he registered her, swung his weapon around to fire, short enough that if one blinked, they'd miss her. He was getting irritated, and forced himself to keep cool. If he lost his focus, he'd be a dead man here. On the up-side, the Seeker's ploy of keeping in motion also meant she didn't appear long enough to do him any damage either.
Ender kept his eyes peeled, saw the Seeker blip in and out of sight, and began to realize something. She wasn't just becoming invisible, she was moving from point to point. Which meant that while she wasn't 'visible' to them, it merely placed her somewhere else. He began scanning the area for her, both sending out his perception for the trace of the Demon, as well as sweeping his night-vision over the area. Distance didn't seem to phase her, but she had to be close enough to keep an eye on Mickey in order to place her teleportation as accurately as she was. He wasn't sure if she had a spot from whence she was teleporting, or if she chose a bouncing point at random, but this Demon seemed too calculated to leave things to last-minute choices. So, if she had points from which she was teleporting, where were they...?
Taves remained at the edge of the parking lot. Without a natural connection to the earth – naturally occurring stone, earth, soil, dirt, sand – he was trapped where he stood on the edges. He had seen Ender and Asia arrive on the scene, and knew the Demon would notice them soon too, if she hadn't already. He needed to do something to help... If Vaius needed a clear view in order to plot her course, he could offer them a tangled sky to work with... None of his current allies required flight, so the sky did not need to be clear on their account. Reaching both hands into the soil at his feet, he grabbed hold of the roots of the arbutus and oak that grew beyond the fence and sent his spirit up through them, and branched his fingers out through the sky above the parking lot. The trees groaned and twisted, the leaves, branches and twigs flaring out as if an explosion within them had pushed them outwards. The few stars visible in the sky above seemed hidden behind a lace curtain of tangled branches and patchy canopy in merely minutes. Let's see the Demon navigate that, shall we.
Morgan, still in full Anthro form, looked up at Topher with glassy black eyes, then to the seriously injured Seth. Pushing himself to his cloven feet, Morgan snorted acknowledgement, but instead of helping put Seth in a vehicle and get him to medical help, he pointed a hoofed hand at the dead Harpy, snorted again and stamped his foot twice, pointing then to all around them. He was trying to say that there was another Demon out here somewhere. He could almost smell it, if it weren't for the decaying stench of the Harpy. He didn't even try to speak in this form; he'd never had much luck in trying before. He hoped Topher would get the message.
Topher nodded at Morgan then shook his head. "I know, but we can't very well leave Seth unattended and go looking for it. He can't defend himself like this, and if we don't do something for him quickly, he might die..." Topher looked back at the wound and cursed soundly under his breath. Seth's eyes had gone wide and glassy, and Topher could tell the Coyote was trying futilely to focus his sight. Bad sign.
Seth was chuckling shallowly, trying with all his might to hold onto his toughness, but damn did that shoulder hurt, and he wasn't feeling so good... "Why ya talkin' 'bout dyin', chief?" Seth hazarded, swallowing hard, another gush of blood seeping through the bandages.
Asia remained crouched where she was as she watched not only the Seeker, but Ender and Mickey as well. She didn't know how to attack something that moved so fast and invisibly. If it was physically moving at all, which she was beginning to doubt. She reached into the sleeve holsters strapped to her wrists and withdrew her batons again, snapping them to full length with a flick of the wrist. If that thing didn't notice them already, it would soon, and she wanted to be ready if it came towards her. She was fast, but was she fast enough? She was almost ready to dash forward as the Seeker appeared with its back towards her when movement from what she assumed was the Dryad caught her eye. She missed her chance at the Demon as she stood stunned by the near sudden appearance of a canopy of branches and foliage. "Where?" she mumbled to herself before the answer dawned on her. She looked at Taves with a curious eye. What was this for? She couldn't see the big picture. Not yet.
Vaius' let all of her eyes blink in unison to teleport, and while closed, for that split moment of blink time, Taves began to push out his branches to cover the space through which she was travelling at light speed. The branches moved fast, but not instantaneously, and Vaius found herself blinking up higher and higher to try to avoid their spreading reach. She was getting tired, struggling to form some method of dealing with this cluster of Weres. She paused to see if she would be clear of the branches, and found herself floating up above them, a web of foliage and brambles hanging between her and her targets. She could glimpse their shapes, and smell them below, but there was no path to get to them with her blinking. There was a spot just near the building where she could set down by that waiting Raccoon... Only when she went to blink, she opened her eyes to find herself exactly where she was. She looked, and sure enough, dead behind her was the streetlamp and the lights around the front of the building lighting the darkness. She cursed soundly. The brambles had pushed her too far up into the light. Think quickly -- abandon this mission as an entire failure? A loss of a soldier with no gain to show for it? The Masters wouldn't like that... Or try to take something back with her? While she floated above the branches thinking, she had no choice but to remain still - and visible for a moment.
Mickey was startled to find the trees suddenly spring out at a few feet per second to fill the air above his head. He had a momentary wave of panic, a claustrophobic gasp for breath, before he realized the shadowy green creature behind him that had broken his fall stood at the heart of the movement. He calmed himself and let his eyes unfocus, trying to pick up movement within and beyond the branching trees. He saw the blipping flash as Vaius moved backwards, higher and higher to dodge the reaching branches. And then she was still, floating beyond the leaves, staring back at them. Too far for him to shoot and hit with Sheila. He thought about switching her mode, lighting the branches up with fire, but he figured his earthy ally wouldn't appreciate it much, and he was getting to like the idea of a fence between him and the witchy Demon.
Ender saw the branches flare out towards him and subsequently Vaius' retreat. When she remained still for more than a blink of time, he took his chance. Trees proved no trouble for him! He scrambled up the side of the building and flung himself bodily into the air, shifting into full form mid-flight. He landed, a five foot Raccoon in the trees and began climbing as fast as his sharp claws and short legs would allow, navigating through the trees, trying to reach the surface of the canopy, trying to find a path through the maze to the Demon to strike while he could.
Morgan smirked. Or he would have if his face was anywhere near human. Topher was right. Seth was dying. There was another Demon, but if they tried to find and fight it first, they'd be sacrificing Seth. He couldn't do that. With a deep intake of breath, the Bison features retreated and a few seconds later, Morgan was human in appearance again. "Get him in my truck. Where do we take him?"
Topher was thinking fast, trying to figure out who was the best hope for help, and who was closest. "Uh.... Let's get him to Meredith. I think she should be able to maintain both Taves and Saint simultaneously..." He shifted and hooked his arms together as a brace and slipped them under Seth's neck and good shoulder. "Help me move him..." he spoke under his breath.
Seth's head lolled a little and he grinned up at Topher, the eyes unfocussed. "Hey man... I thought you said you didn' like guys...why're'ya holding me so nicely....?"
Asia watched the branches stop their weaving, and saw the slightly flash of the other Demon high above the canopy. It stopped doing whatever it was doing, and she saw Ender take off after it out of the corner of her eye. She smiled to herself and reholstered her batons. Two could play this game. She darted into the trees as well, climbing for all she was worth. Ender wasn't gonna have all the fun. She just hoped when she got high enough, that thing would still be paused. She was getting tired of playing hide and go seek. Her Ferret form leapt from branch to branch, climbing ever higher. She lost track of Ender, but knew he was doing the same somewhere. Who would get there first?
Ender went up through the branches with speed and strength, but as skilled and vicious as a Raccoon was, they were not the sleek, graceful animals that ferrets were, and Asia caught him up and then shot past him and reached the top before him. He launched himself the last distance and broke through the branches to reach the surface of the canopy.
Vaius saw them coming and began to feel that rise of hatred and panic in her heart. She couldn't jump from where she was, that left levitation and good old fashioned running. Undignified running. But she didn't have much of a choice. She lowered her feet to the branches and keeping a little of her weight buoyant, began to try to scramble for the safety of ground and darkness.
Morgan nodded, speaking very little even though he was no longer inhibited by the Anthro form. He sighed, looking at his bare feet. Hooves and work boots don't quite fit together. He'd wrecked countless pairs before these, but these last ones he'd finally broken in fully and they had been really comfortable. Oh well. Life goes on. "You'll have to give me directions once he's in the truck." Moving over to give Topher a hand with Seth, he took the Coyote's legs and brought him to the truck. "Inside, it'll be snug, but safer for him."
Topher helped get Seth into Morgan's vehicle and then climbed in himself. He wiped his hands off as best he could, and dialed Meredith's number. When she answered, as briefly as he could, he outlined their situation. After getting the okay from her, he nodded to Morgan and hung up. "All right... We're heading south from here, towards town. Do you know where Brandle Plaza is?"
Seth felt himself being moved, but aside from getting cold and shaking uncontrollably, he couldn't really say he was feeling much of anything. He saw shapes, blurry and huge out of the corners of his eyes, but he was having a hard time focusing on anything. He tried to tell them that, but his tongue felt swollen and dry and just moved without sound in his throat.
Asia shot past Ender and for a moment thought about holding back to wait on him. But catching sight of the Demon above, that thought was quickly erased from her mind. As she burst forth from the canopy, her batons sprang into her hands as if by magic and she immediately scrambled deftly across the branches towards the Seeker. She must have seen Asia coming, and maybe Ender too, because she quickly started to run away. If run was the right word. She kind of wondered why it didn't do its zippy-invisible thing, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. If she could get close enough, she intended to play a bit of her favorite game, whack-a-demon.
Mickey watched from below, a plethora of branches between him and the fight above. So, he did the only thing he could think of doing. He got up off the ground and went towards the Dryad. He dug his foot into a knot in the wood and with Sheila slung over his back, climbed up and over the chain-link to land on the other side with Taves. There was no more light here than on the concrete, but the Dryad didn't seem able to come any closer, and if that was in fact the case, Mickey'd rather be standing where the Spirit had more power, rather than stuck out with the moss that had broken his fall.
Ender saw Asia flick out her batons, and himself readied his own weapons. He could feel the power prickling just beneath the skin and fur, ready, but waiting for the switch to be flicked, for the valve in his soul to open so that it could pour out, devour the world if given the chance. Ender did not get to give it that chance. So far, the only thing at hand to consume was the branches beneath him, and they were a very tentative floor right now - not something to be weakened by overly aggressive power. Asia chased after the fleeing Seeker, and he knew that even should he run that direction, he'd not catch up nor overtake either of them. And so, he hunkered down, ready to block off the retreat if Asia could flank her. If not, then he'd have to fast come up with a second plan.
Morgan climbed into the truck and slammed the key into the ignition. He hadn't bothered to retrieve his sledge from where it lay on the concrete, it wasn't important right now. And he could always get another from the building supply stores should he need to. As the truck rumbled to life, he heard Topher's side of the phone conversation as was already backing out when the directions came. "South, towards town. Brandle Plaza. Okay." He swung the wheel hard and pointed the truck south and hit the gas. "Keep him awake and as motionless as possible." He had no idea where they were going, or who this Meredith person was, but if Topher thought she could help keep Seth from dying, he was gonna get his friend there alive.
Topher nodded to Morgan again, and with one arm bracing Seth as best he could, and the other putting pressure on the wound to help it to clot, he kept his eyes on his friend's face. "Seth, look at me, buddy..." Topher started, unsure of how functional Seth's responses would be in this state of shock. "Hey man, you can't pass out on me. I don't want to have to slip you the ol' CPR tongue..."
Seth let out a rattling chuckle and his eyes swam about trying to find Topher's face amidst the blurry colours in his field of vision. "Oh, cummon... 'Know you've been wannin' ta make out with me so bad, Toph... You're, like, the gayest guy I know...”
Topher laughed softly and shook his head. Had to keep him talking. "I am not, and you know it... You work with a bunch of male strippers... List them off for me, Seth..." Topher coaxed. Seth blinked and the grin faltered, then he blinked again, the eyes finding Topher's face with difficulty.
“List 'em, eh? Let's see... There's Topher....and Reese..." He began, grinning.
Asia continued to chase after the Seeker. It was nimble, but so was she. Catching up to it was proving difficult, but not impossible. She gained slowly, banking on her lithe ferretine form to squeeze through gaps the Seeker was too large for, even if it was sort of floating. She constantly flexed her grip on the batons in anticipation. She wanted to get some measure of vengeance on the thing, even if all she did was drive it back towards Ender. Maybe they could trap it then. She worked on trying to get ahead of it and rout it back Ender's way. But if she had the chance, even a fleeting one, she would not hesitate to attack.
Mickey nodded to Taves as he came up before him. "Thanks, friend..." Mickey offered, not sure if this creature could understand English, or speak it.
"No thanks required, sir. Meredith bid me come and give aid..." Taves could speak. He could speak very well, in an Olde English accent and very well annunciated at that. "Clever of you to come closer, sir. May I suggest you try to remain on natural soil until we are rid of that foul Demon aloft? 'Twould make it fairer for me to protect you in my task... Lo, behold, they seek to challenger her..." Taves pointed up with a tree root, while his own hands were still deeply lodged in the earth.
Vaius saw the Ferret catching up, and casting a hand behind her saw Ender in wait, hunched and pouring a great deal of energy into the world around him. She had a bad feeling, a sense of built-in revulsion for that sense of power. The Gifted. This was swiftly becoming ugly, and dangerous. She would not lie in wait to be torn apart. This was no battle of gain and honour here. This was a lost cause. Better to return with a report than die for nothing. Vaius rose into the air in a sort of floating leap, and with all her eyes fluttering as if in seizure she pulsed, faded and was gone.
Morgan just concentrated on driving. He trusted Topher, who had presumably known Seth longer, knew how to keep the coyote talking. Which was weird, since from what he'd experienced of Seth, it was usually more troublesome getting him to be quiet. He would have smiled at the thought, but this wasn't the time. "We're nearing the Plaza. Now where?"
Seth was rambling off the names of the dancers at Mercury Solid in an unsteady order, naming some twice, but talking. Topher glanced up to the road to get a grips on their whereabouts and nodded to Morgan. "When you get to the plaza, turn right onto Habersbrook Ave. About halfway down, it's a left on Measford Rd. Number 746." He checked the wound under the cloth makeshift bandage and saw that the bleeding was slowing. "It won't be long now Seth, just hang in there, alright...?" He murmured, not wanting to interrupt Seth's increasingly embellished list of strippers.
"…And then there's Candy Sue Preme...or was that a different club...? I might've been drunk then, coulda sworn her name was Candy..." Seth was rambling, grin stretched in place from ear to ear, a strained, unnatural expression.
Asia faltered to a halt as the Demon rose into the air and disappeared. She frantically scanned the area, but saw no sight of it. Demons were tricky, and this one seemed even more so, so she was not inclined to believe it was truly gone. She sniffed at the air, scanned everywhere her vision stretched to and even pricked her ears for any sign of the Seeker. Still finding none, she shot a questioning look back at Ender. She tried to see if he was having any better luck before she even moved an inch from her current location. No sense in stumbling into a very bad ambush.
Ender saw Vaius rise up, seem to have a seizure, and then vanish. He sniffed the air, scanned the area, saw nothing, smelled nothing, heard nothing... "Oi, Taves, you sense any trace of her?" He called down to the Dryad waiting beneath his canopy.
"She has retreated, sir. My guess would be that Hell has been her goal, if not her destination. If sir and madam would care to climb down, the trees tire of this stretch, and would like to rest their boughs..." Taves returned in his clear, old fashioned diction.
Mickey let out a deep sigh. He was glad that the immediate threat was gone, but it left him wondering about how the other battle faired. Things had gone quiet 'round the front side of the building. He took off towards the fence and scaled and vaulted it in a swift, strong motion. He landed running and made his way around to the side lights where Seth, Topher, and the big guy had been entangled with another Demon. There was a lot of blood on the pavement, but the Demon had already decayed to ash which was even now floating away into the night. One taken, at least.
Asia frowned. Although she really wasn't in full fighting form, she still was disappointed that the Demon had fled. She didn't like it when they went back to Hell by their own accord. She liked to send them there with at least a few reasons to not return. This one, she feared, would be back and that scared her, even if she hid it. Next time, it might not be so passive. "Down" she managed to sound out with her Ferret muzzle as she descended as best and quickly as she safely could. As soon as her feet touched ground, she shifted back to her Anthro form, just in case. Like Mickey, she was curious about the other Demon and how the others were faring. Though, she waited for Ender before going to see for herself. She was surprised to see them missing and the detritus of battle still evident. "Where the hell did they go?" She questioned, shifting back to her human form, sweaty, banged up still from the first Demon encounter of the night, and naked. The latter did not seem to bother her. Her clothes, baggy in her normal form, tended to fall off in hybrid and sometimes Anthro forms.
Morgan again nodded his understanding. When they reached the Plaza he made the necessary turn, then another when the time came. He slowed, but not by much as he scanned the numbers of the homes they passed looking for the right one. By the time they got there, he coasted the truck to a stop, roughly parked at the side of the road in front and hopped out to help get Seth. "Still alive, gearhead?"
"Gearhead...?" Seth croaked as Topher started to pull him out of the truck. "You tryin' ta get sweet with me, Bison?" Seth murmured, his head lolling to one side. As Topher got him out and gestured for Morgan to help carry him up the walk to the house, the door opened and Meredith came out into the night.
"I've gotten everything ready, you guys, just bring him in here..." She called, noting the huge form of a new addition to the Were community.
Ender made it down as low as he could and then let himself drop, shifting back into his human form as he did so, and walked towards Asia, wearing only his jeans, his shoes and shirt discarded when he readied for the fight. He caught up with them and saw Mickey was thankfully unscathed. "Everyone all right?" He asked, looking around and seeing the tree branches melting back to where they naturally should have been. He got out his cellphone and began dialing Topher's number. No reason to panic yet...
Asia shrugged. "I'm fine. A little disappointed that I didn't even get to smack either of the Demons, but I'm alive and no more injured. Which is a first in a long time." She smirked and went to gather her clothing to at least attempt modesty. After all, in front of the garage, even at this time of night, was still public. She didn't want to get arrested... again.
Morgan helped get Seth to the front door where a woman he'd never seen before appeared. She didn't smell like a Were. She smelled different. He wasn't sure what to make of her and in any other situation, might have been wary of her. But, Topher seemed to know her and vice versa, so he guessed she was a friend overall. He shifted attention back to Seth. "I don't sweet-talk carnivores."
Meredith moved aside and then directed them as to where to lay Seth down. She'd set up a make shift bed of blankets on the floor, and already had a hot bowl of water and a few towels and cloths, gauze and liniment set out. She gave Topher a kiss on the cheek and smiled at Morgan. "I'm Meredith. I hope we'll have time for proper introductions later, but for now, I have work to do." She swept around to tend to Seth and took his hand in hers, feeling his pulse, sensing his life force. "Seth, you sexy man, you... You know who I am?" Meredith murmured to him, smiling kindly down into his face, her waves of dark hair pulled back in a loose braid for a change to better facilitate her working.
"Hey, I know that voice... The Witch... You gonna magic me?" Seth croaked, the grin beginning to falter.
Morgan half nodded to Meredith. "Morgan. Is he gonna be okay?" he asked in his minimalistic speaking style. Not knowing what else to do, he stayed as far out of Meredith's way as he could and paced. "Let me know if you need help." He offered, knowing there wasn't likely much he could assist with, but the offer was there, anyways.
Meanwhile, Topher was washing the blood off his hands in the kitchen sink, when his cell phone rang. He clicked his blackberry on and pinched it to his ear as he dried his hands on a towel. "Hello?" He asked, and heard Ender's voice on the other end. "Uh, Seth's hurt pretty badly. We took him ‘round to Meredith's to try and get him healed up. You all okay?"
Mickey listened to Ender's conversation on the phone, and saw the visible relief in the young man's stance that it seemed all of their crew were still alive and kicking. He was glad for that. These boys were family to him, not just employees, not just pet watchdogs. He let himself relax a little too. He looked around and was glad to see Asia was getting dressed again. A bruised-up, young girl's body wasn't exactly in threat of stirring any sort of sexual response from him, but he felt a bit more comfortable having another layer of clothing between her and him.
Asia returned, clothed and walked straight to Ender. "Where are they? Is everything okay?" she questioned, figuring that he had called Topher. It's what she would have done if she'd had her phone on her. Or Seth, she could have called him too. "From the blood and... other fluids, I'd say this was the real fight here. Did they kill it, or did it escape too?" She hadn't been there, or even noticed if she had been, the ash of the Harpy dissipating.
Ender nodded as he hung up. “Looks like the Harpy was destroyed, at least. Topher and the Bison that Seth brought are both fine; Seth’s arm got nearly torn off. Meredith’s trying to fix him up now.” He shook himself out, letting out a deep breath. “Let’s get back inside. We’ve got some calls to make…”
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