Julia thought she’d heard it all–ancient dragon civilizations, her becoming a dragon, a literal magical superhero organization that her mother, of all people, currently ran, and that true evil existed in the world in the form of hulking magitech menaces, and murderous divas.
But this scared her. “Valosterla is a monster of her own choosing, Abigail–”
“No, she isn’t. She only thinks she is.” This little girl sounds absolutely certain of herself, which is why she’s still ignoring the commotion downstairs. “There’s a bright light in her that rings like a fellow kindred, shrouded in a veil of ugliness.”
Okay, we have officially gone places I never expected. Val is possessed? Someone’s making her do things? This is one crackpot thing I really hope isn’t true. She firms up and holds Abigail gently. “What else do the little crystals say?”
“Julia, we need to go, right now. Nick’s powering up the one-time pad, he thinks there’s either Talons, or Ravager plain-clothes agents on the way.” Angela storms into the room, already geared in her armor and Luminari strapped to her shoulder. She pauses to stare at Abigail. “Um, hi, were your eyes blue before?”
The girl squeals in delight. “Oh, you’re the new one! She knew she could trust her to find the right one!”
Julia gasped, and Angela stared blankly. This was just too much stuff to be hit with at once, and right during a crisis. Angela is the first to react. “Yep, remember when I said I was glad Drenar was the destined one? Wishing that were still true. Has our precocious seven-year-old now started hearing crystals talking?”
“Yep. We just hit full-tilt crazy,” Julia said shakily. “Okay, the crisis is brewing kiddo, we need to go.” She hastily grabs a few clothes for the poor girl and stuffs them in a little toy backpack, that she quickly slings over her shoulder. “Angela, I know I asked before, but–”
“Oh, you don’t want to know what’s going on right now,” Angela states warily.
“Uh, should we tell her?” Abigail asked, as if to the air. Julia warily looked at Angela, and her veins across her face seemed to be lighting up with a faint blue. “Okay, so, someone did a good thing, and put a crack in a wall! She’s not happy about being cooped up for so long!”
“Abigail…are you talking about Gaia?” Angela dares to break this mystifying moment, and Abigail nods.
“My dad, too, he hears it. But he’s older. He tuned out the sounds a long time ago. She had to speak louder.” Julia knows that whatever is happening, is important.
“Damn it, get back, they jammed the signal–”
There’s a sound of what sounds like a blast, and the house shakes. Julia instantly wraps around Abagail from what could be the blast-wave–but it’s just a burst of air. Drenar and Nick are shouting, and the sound of bootsteps running up the stairs is apparent. Joey bursts in, hair frazzled and she’s in her Kitsune form, and her tail looks like a bottle brush. Abigail does not seem to be deterred by the sounds of probable explosives, and squeals.
“Oh my, I knew it from the eyes, another soul-touched!” Joey puts a single claw up, then thinks better of it.
“Okay, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but our one-time-use teleportal pad shorted out, and we’re about to have contacts. Julia, grab Abigail, we’re meeting with team two down the back alley, we need to get back to the garrison! Weird shi–mean um, stuff, seems to be quite popular,” she hastily corrects.
“Okay, Abigail, I need you to stick with me, I’m going to put a barrier around you to keep you protected. It might sting a little, okay?” Julia assures her as she slings her backpack around her, and her skin tingles with energy. The little girl salutes and Julia feels that flow of energy she’s gotten increasingly good at channeling wraps around her and Abigail, and she keeps her close by. “Does it hurt?”
“No. I’ll be okay.” She shakes her head, and they dash down the stairwell. The sight of the living room is a disaster, with furniture strewn waywardly. The mobile teleportal is fragmented and smoking, and Drenar looks like he’s pissed off.
“They're jamming us,” he states as he waves to the ruined device. “Well, this is par for the course."
Abigail sees him, and grins. “Oh, now I know why you look familiar! You look just like her!”
Drenar ignores the brewing crisis and Nick is already slamming the back door open, with Rick and Marlene’s arcane barriers up. His green eyes are lit up like a deer in the headlights. “Uh, I'm sorry, I look like whom?”
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“Drenar, questions later! Rick, keep your head down, Marlene, stay with us, we'll keep you safe. We're not in a veil-free zone, we can't do magic–”
The sound of shouts on the street is audible, and then there's a banging at the door. Everyone freezes. Bad guys don't knock.
“Nick, who's outside?” Drenar asks. Nick looks pale.
“One murderous diva, and about thirty men that pulled up in several vehicles, and armed to the gills. The diva is the one knocking.”
That thudding noise comes again, and Rick looks petrified. “I–I don't understand. How is she here?” As if on cue, there's the ominous knock at the door, again. Julia curls her nails into her palm and grabs Matilda Mark II from the weapons bag, aims it down the hallway, and chambers a massive round. She puts Abigail in Angela's care and aims by a wall corner.
“Julia, we’ve tested that thing. That’s not an anti-material rifle, it’s a rail gun,” Joey whispered.
“Great. That should take care of the murderous diva,” she whispered back. “Are they advancing, Nick?”
“She’s just…sitting there. Rick, why is–”
“She’s Rick’s boss, and apparently, they figured he wasn’t dead,” Julia hisses, and out of the corner of her eye, Rick goes pale. “Get them out of here, now.”
“Great. Who got a bingo on this one?” Nick called out.
“Not the one I wanted,” Drenar sighed, even as he leveled an autobow at the doorframe, too. “Let’s parley, then.”
“Gladly. Hi, Rick's residence, how can we help you?” Julia calls out while preparing to put a round through Val’s skull. She answers in turn with that God-awful rhyming.
“Ricky indeed, where did you go?
I had to search, both high and low!
I had to fly to foreign land,
when I was told you turned to sand.
Someone fibbed, surely they lied!
You called in dead? tough luck, nice try!"
That unnerving sing-song is as horrible as it is disturbing.
“Uh…. it's called a sick day! The husband will get back to you, he's had a rough day!” She tries to deflect. In a low tone, she called out, “She's still at the door, right Nick?”
“Uh, yes, but if you fire that, you will blow a hole through a block of Jersey,” he cautioned.
"Demolition of this place can only increase the land valuation," Julia growled. "How the hell did she get here so fast?"
"Forget the how, we need to get out of here, now." Angela was already moving with Joey, escorting Rick’s family, while Drenar and Julia held the door. Julia took that advice as don’t miss.
“Surely you don’t think I recognize you, Miss DeVerdra?” Val called out through the door. “This song is at an end, this demand is absolute! Give me my dear Rick, Or I’ll turn your scales into boots,” she crooned.
“Yeah, gonna go with ‘no’ on this one,” Drenar shouted out, teeth gritted in fury. “You gonna make a scene in the middle of public, Val, with a garrison a few blocks away? What’s Rick worth to you, he’s a nobody!”
“Why don’t you open the door? We’ll talk,” she purred.
“And listen to more of your insane singing? I’d rather get eaten by a dragon!” Drenar retorts. Which is ironic, because he is one.
“Hold up.” Julia, out of everyone here, wants to put a giant crater into Val’s body with this deadly new firearm. “Why haven’t you barnstormed the place like normal?! What’s your angle, Val, everyone on our team wants to make you into a carcass, in what universe do you think we’ll talk to you?!”
“Because I’ve heard the crystals. They’re calling out now. I heard them when your dear Angela fought me inside the power core,” she announced. This also bore grim tidings, “And now, anyone who hears them, I need them alive.”
“Gods damn it,” Drenar hissed. “What is up with the damn mana? Tell Crosomer–that giant dickbag that he is–that he’s gonna kill the planet if he keeps messing with that device of his!”
“Much as I want all of you dead, you also have something of mine–”
A gunshot rings out, followed by several more–but they’re all coming from outside, hitting Val’s position.
“Shit, who’s firing?!” Drenar called out over the arcanlink.
“SAF just showed up, and started shooting! Why is this guy so popular?” Levine called out, as a bullet bounced inside and ricocheted close to Julia’s head. The return fire from the Talons cut off their chance for chatter, and she shouldered the rifle.
“Hey Val, time to meet the Matilda Mark II!” she screamed out as she fired a round through the door–
–and was promptly flung back a full meter and fell on her ass, her shoulder throbbing from the recoil of the round that turned the door to kindling, and was blown backward by the miniature concussive blast. Her ears were ringing, too, and she hauled herself up as Drenar winced, and returned fire out the door.
“Everyone regroup at the SAF garrison, stick to cover, and try not to draw any fire on civilian buildings!” Drenar called out. She grabbed him even as he kept firing and they pushed out the back door, where more firefighting was going on, on the other street.
“We’re boxed in! Multiple Talons operatives in heavy armor just showed up in a big rig truck!” Nick called out over the radio. “SAF command, friendlies in the open!” if there was an answer, Julia didn’t hear it as they ducked past an inflatable pool, and the gunshots were too close for comfort. She threw a wave of plasma at the first man to peek through the door and zapped him with enough current to leave on the ground, smoking. She leveled the massive rifle again, just as Val pushed past her underlings–with just a dent in her ebony armor?!
“Oh, this is bullshit. The enemies upgrade gear, too?!” She fired again and managed to not fall on her backside, and the concussive round burst the inflatable pool , smashed cinder blocks in the backyard market wall, and sent Val crashing back into the house.
This was becoming a run-and-gun battle in the middle of suburbia with hundreds of witnesses, and she rounded the corner past a brick wall, before a fireball detonated and washed over her and Drenar, flaring their shields, just as they dove to the ground.
“For the record, I filled in my bingo card, in case I die,” Drenar coughed.
“If we live through this, I’m gonna kill Rick,” she growled. The fight was still going strong, and they needed an exit plan, fast.