(Continuity note: This fic takes place between Legion of Lawndale Heroes, Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen.)
But take my advice, you don't stand a
chance
Freaks are so bad they got their own dance
So if you
wanna live a nice quiet life
Do yourself a favor, don't come out
at night, 'cause
The freaks come out at night
The freaks come
out at night
The freaks come out at night
(the freaks come
out)
The freaks come out at night
-Whodini, The Freaks Come Out At Night
"Daria – this is just so – so you."
The petite Grim Reaper turned to face Helen and Jake Morgendorffer, who entered the fifteenth floor of Legion Tower – a floor-wide observation deck, now redone in Halloween decorations, with a row of tables filled with goodies – dressed for the occasion.
"Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad," the monotone voice echoed from beneath the hood. "Who decided on I Dream of Jeannie?"
Helen, dressed in a Barbara Eden-styled outfit that would have won her the role instantly back in the 1960's, smiled and allowed her ample breasts to jiggle just a bit as several men in different outfits walked by, openly ogling her as they passed. "Mom-!"
"Let them look!" Jake said, quite handsome – and realistic-looking, Daria thought – in the Air Force uniform he wore for the occasion. "This genie only uses her magic to give me what I want!"
"Far, far, far too much information," Daria said, darting away as Helen smiled at her husband. "Must – gargle – for a thousand years…"
On the other side of the room, Stacy Rowe (dressed in a yellow-and black leather outfit exactly like the one worn by 'The Bride' in 'Kill Bill, Vol.1' – complete with katana, slung over her back), Tiffany Blum-Deckler (back from the Academy for the party, and dressed in a Southern Belle formal outfit, complete with what some passerby referred to as a 'pouffy skirt') and Jodie Landon (dressed as Lt. Uhura, complete with short Starfleet uniform and hair up, with a commo plug in her ear) sipped punch as they looked around.
"This charity Halloween Costume Ball was a great idea, Quinn," Jodie said, the tone of approval in her voice making Quinn Morgendorffer feel unexpectedly warm inside. "The Lawndale chapter of the 'Make-A-Wish' Foundation will be able to help a lot more kids this year - oh, great."
All eyes in the room turned as Andrew and Michelle Landon, dressed as Ramses II and Nefertari, entered the area. "Mom and Dad aren't hiding the fact that they've got money now, are they? If you'll excuse me..."
"They… dooooooo… looooook… goooooood," Tiffany drawled, as Quinn's eyes were drawn to the girl that entered the observation deck, unnoticed in the wake of the Landon's entrance. "Yulllllllll… Brynnnnnnnerrr… looked… betterrrrr…"
"I'll be right back," Quinn said, wondering why she was heading over to the beautiful girl dressed as a St Trinian's schoolgirl; with her long dark hair, brown eyes and olive skin, she looked like a Bollywood movie star hiding from the paparazzi.
Watching as several guys in costume approached the girl and were politely turned away, Quinn stopped to get two cups of punch, and went to her. "Hello. You're from the Academy, right? I'm Quinn – Quinn Morgendorffer."
The girl turned, her expression suddenly becoming luminous as she recognized Quinn in her 'Bride of Frankenstein' costume. "Oh! Oh, I know you – I mean, everybody knows who you are…"
She held her right hand, encased in a fishnet glove, out to Quinn. "I'm Danielle. Danielle Todds. I'm a Cadet Fifth Class at the Academy." She looked around the area. "I came with some of my friends, but they all stopped off in the arboretum. Amy Lucas, one of my friends – she does things with plants, and she's waving her 'green everything' all over the place."
"She'd better be careful about that – Upchuck might see her, and she'd never be rid of him!"
Danielle gave her a curious look. "'Upchuck?' Who's that?"
Quinn suddenly remembered that, for some strange and unexplained reason, most other girls actually considered Upchuck – gasp! – to be good-looking…Well, like that lady in the Silent Bob stoner movies Stacy watches said, 'women are insane…' Anybody that thinks Upchuck is cute definitely needs medical attention. "Charles Ruttheimer. He-"
"--has so many girls planning to show up – if not for the party tonight, then definitely for the New Year's Eve party you guys have planned. Boy, he's going to have his pick of the litter; I'm surprised that none of you Legion girls have roped him in!"
"Him? Please!" Quinn laughed out loud, a sound that made Danielle smile. "Trust me – I have no interest in him whatsoever."
"But all the stories about you, the 'serial dater' – there's that article in Waif about you and those three guys, and your date rating system…" Danielle let her eyes drop as Quinn's face registered total shock. "I thought, I mean-"
"I'm not dating any of those guys - I mean, I'm currently taking a dating sabbatical; you know, being the Leader of the Legion and everything, you know, doing good deeds, helping people and still being fashionable…"
"That's important, too..."
They were both quiet for a moment. Quinn found Danielle's presence oddly comforting. "Oh!" said Quinn, "I thought you would like something to drink."
Danielle accepted the offered cup of punch. "Thank you."
The uncomfortable quiet made both drink to cover up the uncertainty both young women suddenly felt themselves swimming in. Danielle broke the silence. "I'm a Healer – at school, I mean – I'm in the First Academy now – I'm training to be a healer – I-" She was at a loss for words.
Quinn would have drunk as well, but found her cup empty. "I didn't see you hanging around with Daria or David Allen – I thought that all healers were psychics-"
"I'm what they call a 'grafter' – it's a different kind of healer," Danielle said, suddenly glad for something to talk about. "I know David Allen, though – healing is one of the rarest powers there is, along with precognition – seeing into the future – and actual magic powers. I don't think there have been more than five people with magic powers at the Academy since I've been there…"
She looked over Quinn's shoulder, and motioned towards a spot where Charles Ruttheimer stood, looking especially dashing in his Anakin Skywalker outfit – he did a nice job with the hair, Quinn thought as she looked in that direction – as he seemed to hold court with at least fifteen girls around him. "See the really hot Sikh girl dressed up as Princess Jasmine – the one making almost all of the others look like also-rans, except for the platinum blonde in the Aphrodite outfit who's doing a Julia Carlyle on your friend? That's Chandni Kaur. She's a cleric – magic powers of some sort."
Quinn looked at the Sikh girl's incredibly taut, flat midsection and sculpted curves swathed in sparkling sapphire-hued silk, and her face showed a touch of insecurity as the boys she knew as 'the Three J's' swarmed around Chandni. "I can tell."
"People react like that to her all of the time," Danielle said, dismissing Chandni with a wave of her hand. "Yes, she's pretty, but so are you - I mean…" The cadet's voice trailed off as she blushed, making her skin tone even more radiant than before.
On the other side of the room, Helen sipped a glass of surprisingly good sparkling wine as she ignored the way Eric Schrecter (dressed as The Shadow, and unsuccessfully trying not to stare at her cleavage) when she noticed her younger daughter and the girl she was talking to – and the body language between them.
Oh, my. That's the one, she thought, seeing the way Quinn and the girl seemed unsure as they moved around each other, and yet unwilling to move outside the other's personal space – which neither seemed to notice had closed to mere inches… I think that's the one. At least she's beyond beautiful; I told Daria that I thought Quinn would find someone extraordinary.
*****
"Think you've taken away enough attention from the rest of us, Brittany?"
Jane, impressive in her wet-look black leather catsuit and duster, was almost invisible next to Brittany's Vampirella, and actually enjoyed watching the way the various guys drooled, fell over, and otherwise humiliated themselves in Brittany's presence. I could do a lap dance on the water fountain next to her and no one would notice.
"It's part of my training!"
If the sight of Brittany wasn't enough to draw attention away from Jane, the former Legion Leader may as well have been invisible when the huge doors of the service elevator opened to let Mack Mackenzie and Tom Sloane onto the deck.
The entire area went silent at the sight of Tom – a year of working out's helped him out a bit, she thought, smiling at the sight of him as 'He-Man', complete with fur shorts and long, blond wig – and then, there was Mack.
They both look like they stepped right out of the 1980's… Their fellow Legionnaire was dressed in hot pink running shoes, white tube socks with pink stripes near the top, pink leg warmers that reached his knees, a pair of hot neon pink running shorts with dual rows of tiny spangles around every seam, and a white tank top cut to show off his – when it's a guy, do they call it 'his midriff'?
Mack smiled at the crowd and actually curtsied; he turned, and Jane saw that he had the three Greek letters 'Lambda Lambda Lambda' on his shirt – and snickered at the small, double sectioned javelin he had in his left hand, both sections bouncing merrily as he turned and curtsied again. "Oh, thank you, thank you!" he said, his voice in a very high falsetto as he responded to the sudden wave of applause. "My friends, I thank you all…"
"Someone's making an effort to win the costume contest," a gentle voice spoke into her ear; Jane turned to see Fran Lawrence (all of four inches tall) as she landed on Jane's shoulder, her dark hair dyed a brilliant blonde to match the Tinkerbell costume she wore.
"That's saying a lot, too, with all of the Academy cadets here – I think they like having a place to go and party where they don't really have to worry about having powers."
"Yeah, Mack went all-out."
"I mean you, Jane. 'Selene the Death Dealer' from the Underworld movies – right?"
"I though of going as a penguin or a white mouse, but I thought, 'nah, that would be pressing my luck.' You know, with my having blue eyes and all."
Fran shook her head, and decided not to reply.
"I'm glad you decided to come out for the party," Jane continued, recalling the talk she and Daria had some time earlier. Even after Julia used some of her blood to heal Fran's scars permanently, she was still skittish about being out in public – let alone wearing anything that could be seen as revealing.
Jane still felt a hot anger every time she thought about the graphic DVDs that William Appleton had filmed of his bedroom antics with Fran, and how she had used her magnetic powers to smash and destroy every single DVD, videotape and every computer system & data storage in the entire complex, making certain that every single frame of what happened was gone forever… I pray that I get to meet that bastard in person – no, that would be too good for him. He'd just better pray that anybody else gets to him before Daria does.
"I just wanted to see – I always liked Halloween when I was little."
"Why don't you join the party for real?"
"No… I'm happy like this."
She lifted away from Jane's shoulder on her shining wings; Jane watched, a smile on her face, as the crowd responded with appreciative sounds and applause as Fran flew away, leaving a sparkling trail in the air behind her. I think that Fran's just won the Best Costume award tonight. Maybe Daria can talk her into coming out to accept it…
Who's that girl Quinn's talking to? They look-Tom? Did that girl just check out your fur underpants from the inside? That little hussy-!
As Jane headed over to let the Academy cadet dressed up as an Elvin princess how much she didn't want some girl giving her boyfriend a prostate exam in public, Julia Carlyle and Sandi Griffin watched with amused expressions. "Oooh, Simple Sidney Simon's about to get hers," Julia cackled, looking divine in her guardian angel robes, wings extended. "She's always going after someone's guy – bet this is going to be good."
"What's going on?"
Julia and Sandi turned to see David Allen Farrington (wearing the uniform of a Captain in the 'Buffalo Soldiers' – the U.S. Army's 10th Calvary from the 19th Century, and composed mainly of Black soldiers) step up behind them. "Oh. Sidney's at it again. She'll never learn."
Sandi turned away from the two cadets, and watched as ten USAES cadets, dressed as members of the Foot Clan from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, gathered around a very pretty girl in 1950's garb. "We've been waiting for you, Miss O'Neill…"
"Get away from me, you idiots! I'm Brenda Starr!"
"The Foot has existed for hundreds of years…""Have you been waiting for this-?"
Laughing as the girl picked up an empty platter and began swatting the other cadets, Sandi noticed a boy her age standing besides her. "Hello?"
The boy – wearing short pants, a Hawaiian shirt and a Detroit Lions baseball cap, along with the cheesiest fake moustache she'd seen in a while – looked her up and down before she spoke. "So – who are you supposed to be?"
Sandi could hardly keep the annoyance out of her voice; almost everyone she'd met so far had asked her that question. "Duhhh! I'm Judge Dredd!"
The boy smiled at her in a way that clearly showed he had no idea who that was. "You're a judge? You don't look like a judge!
Julia and David Allen turned away from Jane's dunking Sidney Simon's head in a very large bowl of orange punch as Tom, Mack, Martin Peters (dressed as the Tenth Doctor) and Alison Cockrum (drawing stares like a sun's gravity in her 'Helen of Troy' costume) tried to pull them apart. "And who are you supposed to be?"
"Why don't you let me give you a ride in my red Ferrari and you can see for yourself?"
The loud SMACK! from Sandi's fist connecting out of the blue with the boy's face actually made Julia and David Allen jump. "Not cool, jerk!"
"Easy, there!" David Allen said, trying not to laugh as he held out one hand to stop Sandi –her fist cocked back to slug the boy again – and the other to help the boy up. "What he meant was, well, it's a 'Magnum' reference."
Sandi immediately looked confused. "What do, like, guns have to do with him hitting on me!"
David Allen bit down a stinging comment as he sent the cadet on his way, and Julia shook her head as she looked down to the 'Lawgiver'– the fictional weapon of the Judges – that hung at Sandi's side. "You're starting to sound – and act - like Zoey."
David Allen looked at his fellow member of The Alliance. "I don't get it."
"You poor thing." Julia patted his hand, and then nodded towards Sandi. "Her 'Lawgiver'? It's not a prop. Sherrie-"
"That's all you needed to say."
David Allen placed a glass of punch in Julia's open hand, and Sandi smirked at the way they both did that so naturally… And they don't even realize that they're doing it, either.
Sandi looked down to the Lawgiver she wore. Sherrie Klein – Julia's roommate at USAES, and her de facto replacement in The Alliance since she had become a Legionnaire – had once again shown off her talents and creativity by taking a fully-functional PFT-M3 and using the internal components to create a 'Lawgiver' – a weapon with all of the PFT's functions and several additions, including the ability to zap anyone unauthorized who tried to hold it
David Allen took a sip of punch. "I can't believe that you're actually wearing that live weapon."
"I've got it on triple safeties, including voice-code recognition and Ring recognition. If you're not wearing a Legion ring, it'll give you a very bad shock."
"I still don't get it, Sandi," David Allen continued. "Why would you like Judge Dredd?"
"I just like it when he says 'I AM - THE LAW'. Like, is that cool or what?"
The Buffalo Soldier gave her a huge smile that she returned – gotta love guys in uniforms. "So, I get it – 'you are 'the Law'."
Sandi's smile brightened, lighting up the room. "I've always liked being in charge."
Julia's expression cooled in an instant. "Come along, David Allen."
The redhead turned and walked away, shooting a look back at Sandi which made her cackle lightly, and David Allen shrugged before following her towards the snack table – which didn't go unnoticed by a great many people.
Sandi blithely scooped a glass of champagne from a tray – and had it scooped immediately from her hand by Sergeant Nemec, looking strangely appropriate in her PSI Cop uniform - as she saw Quinn and Danielle heading for the elevator.
I wonder where they're heading? I wonder if what Daria said – no.
Still – I can go and see what they're doing…
*****
"So, why this costume?"
"It's kind of a long story," Quinn said, sitting down on one of the couches in the common area on the 23rd floor of Legion Tower. "The short version is that there's a jerk I met a while back, and he wants to put his own personal brand on me. This costume is my walking answer to him and what I think of his offer."
"Subtle," Danielle agreed, walking around the area. "Real subtle."
"You probably heard of him – 'Black Majesty?'" Quinn smiled as she sat back. "He left a rose, and everything. 'I must have you for my bride!' – or something like that."
The dark-haired cadet smiled at her. "You know," said Danielle, "the Legion's seen a lot of action – way more than anyone at the Academy's seen, except The Alliance. Everybody calls them that, ever since you guys were there – and you should see how many cadets have formed up into groups like them. It's either training cadres that are getting serious about it, or cadets that have always done things together… just TRY and get time in the VR-simulators now."
"You're kidding!"
Danielle shook her head. "The faculty has had to put in five new VR suites to keep up with the demand, as well as installing new, smaller TIDE-pools – the new ones are the size of those fancy hot tubs that can hold eight or ten people, so only three or four people at a time can use one… also, it's like everyone's running drills against the VR-version of you and your friends Griffin and Mackenzie. They all think that you three are the hard cases- and they have a lot of respect for Jane Lane, too. The way she and Mackenzie knocked Maryann Lyter out of orbit… wow."
The attractive cadet walked over to a window. 'Oh, look," she said, her voice throaty as she gazed off into the distance. "Is that-?"
"The Washington Monument," Quinn said, standing up. "On clear nights, the view is incredible. That's one of the best things about the Tower…"
Her voice trailed off as she took in the sight of Danielle looking out the window. "There's always a great view from here."
Danielle saw the image of Quinn staring at her in the reflection, and let a soft smile cross her face. "I could get used to it."
The silence was broken by the sound of the elevator doors opening, Sandi stepping off and preparing to say something when the words "Oh, my God…" came out instead.
Quinn and Danielle both turned towards Sandi, whose right hand pointed towards the window; Danielle turned back – and screamed.
Quinn turned – and her voice caught in her throat as she saw something pass by the window that seemed as it had flown out of Hell itself. It had the head and nude upper torso of an woman, an incredibly beautiful woman whose looks shamed even Danielle's – but the remainder of its body was gone, except for its gore-coated stomach and entrails dangling below it, the organs twinkling with tiny, multicolored lights - reminiscent of fireflies - as it flew past on large, batlike wings.
The Leader of the Legion almost vomited in her mouth as the creature turned - looked directly at her, and licked its lips with a foul-looking, proboscis-like tongue – then turned back, and kept flying in the direction of Lawndale. "Come on!" she said, turning towards the elevator as the doors opened to reveal Jane and Tom kissing wildly. "Move!"
"Hey – watch the hands!" Jane squealed as Quinn pushed into the elevator, followed by Sandi and Danielle. "What's the big rush, anyway?"
Quinn flipped open a panel, and pressed her hand to the palm scanner inside. "We have to hurry up – otherwise, it'll get away!" she screeched. "Emergency override – first floor!"
The Legionnaires and their guest screamed as the elevator shot down twenty-plus floors in a matter of seconds. "If you smile, I'll kill you," Jane said, trying to sound angry instead of laughing outright, as Danielle and Quinn both fell against Tom, making his mostly-uncovered body turn red as he blushed.
"Later!" Quinn shouted, rushing to the main doors and not caring as she ran through a crowd of people; Danielle and the other Legionnaires followed her outside. "There it is!"
"What the hell is that?" Jane barked out, as Tom used his omni-vision to get a close look of the creature - and immediately turned pale as he did.
"I don't know, but anything that looks like that – and flies around on Halloween night – is not a good thing!" Quinn snapped. "Jane – let's follow that thing!"
An invisible sphere of magnetic force materialized around the Legionnaires and their guest, and shot into the air!
*****
Not for the first time, Anthony DeMartino had serious doubts about his wife Claire's insistence upon having a home delivery of their child.
Our child. My kid. My wife and kid. Who would have thought it?
As he walked into the spare bedroom that he and Claire had set up for her delivery, he saw his wife lying in bed, with a physician assistant and a nurse practitioner taking care of her.
Any moment now, I'm going to be a father.
He smiled at Claire, who he thought looked beautiful as she looked up and returned his smile.
I'm going to be a daddy.
*****
"Okay, Tom – spill," Jane said, keeping above and behind the grotesque thing that flew slowly through the skies of Lawndale, circling about as if it were searching for something. "I know that look on your face – you know what that thing is, because you read about it somewhere! Spill!"
Tom's eyes were glowing blue, as if he were about to fire his omni-vision's heat beams at the creature. "It's a manananggal – sometimes, they're called 'penanggalan', or 'tik-tiks'."
Quinn still looked as if she wanted to vomit. "What is it supposed to be – a real monster, or a demon, or what?"
"Kind of both," Tom told the girls. "Today's October 31 - Halloween. In ancient Celtic culture, the people believed that on October 31 - the night before the New Year began - the boundary separating the dead from the living became blurred. They believed that beings could move freely between the worlds of the living and the dead-"
"Fast forward, Encyclopedia Brown!" Jane snarled. "What is it, and how do we kill it?"
Tom drew back from his girlfriend in surprise. "It's straight out of Filipino folklore – a version of vampire, not really dead or alive. They can supposedly separate their torsos from the rest of their bodies-"
The looks Tom got from the four women should have left him bleeding out and dying. "Right. They show up and fly around, looking to find pregnant women and eat their b-"
The look of absolute horror that crossed Jane's face as she spun around stopped him cold.
"What?"
"They supposedly show up around pregnant women and eat their babies in the womb-"
Jane's eyes were suddenly aflame with anger. "Burn that thing out of the sky. NOW!"
Tom shot away from Jane's magnetic bubble, and twin blue beams of pure death sliced through the darkness to strike directly between the creature's shoulder blades, causing it to let out a shriek of pain that rang out across the entire town.
"I think he ticked it off!" Danielle cried out, fear thickening her voice; she hadn't even realized that she had grasped Quinn's hand when the creature turned and stared directly at them.
"Breeders," it hissed, licking its perfect lips with a tongue delivered straight from Hell. "Young, delicious breeders… so fertile… so ready to bear fruit to my table…"
Fixating on the creature, Sandi would never remember how naturally she had drawn the Lawgiver from its holster, pointed at the monstrosity and forcefully said, "Shock mode!"
"Shock mode," the weapon repeated; the manananggal instantly dropped from the sky as the weapon's barrel flashed rapidly and a sound like a thunderclap exploded over Lawndale.
The creature lifted itself up as the Legionnaires and Danielle approached; it hissed out its pain and anger at them before turning intangible and diving through the street just as a trio of cars passed by. "Dammit!" Quinn said, her right hand crackling with electricity and her left still in Danielle's. "It can go ghost, just like Tiffany!"
Jane whipped out her Legion cell phone. "Tom – how do you scare those things off, crosses, garlic, what?"
"Uh, well – thorns around the house-"
"Tom!"
"Scissors," Tom said quickly. "The one way to scare them away from a pregnant woman is to put scissors beneath her pillows – they're afraid of sharp objects, because their innards can be sliced apart by them. That's part of the whole 'thorns around the house' thing - broken glass – pineapples! They're afraid of whole pineapples, too!"
"Mr. DeMartino? This is Jane Lane!" she barked into her phone. "Mr. DeMartino, how's Miss DeFoe - she's in labor now? Oh, God… please, Mr. DeMartino, listen to me, I know this is going to sound crazy, but do you have a pair of scissors? Sir, you know how I have powers, and Daria and Quinn and the rest of us – sir, I think something bad's coming for the baby – just put the scissors under the pillows on her bed! I know that… thank you, sir, thank you! We're on our way!"
"Jane – there are babies being born all over – how can you know or be sure of-"
Jane spun around and held up her hand for silence. "One – look at the past couple of years and all of the weird things that have centered on us! Two! Ms. DeFoe – Mrs. DeMartino - happens to be the only pregnant woman in town that we happen to know personally! Three – haven't you ever seen any movies or TV shows? Of course that thing's going after her baby!"
*****
Ignoring the looks that the women gave him, Anthony placed a small pair of scissors, wrapped in a hand towel, under one of the pillows on Claire's bed.
Despite her last name, Jane's never been a bad student or a bad person – and after last year and seeing what they could do, I'm a lot more open to the things out in the world. After the strange things she told us about at dinner – if she wants me to put the scissors under a pillow on Claire's bed, I can do that.
An idea came into his head, and he ran into the room that Claire was using for her arts and crafts; several minutes later, a pair of scissors was placed in every window in the house, and in the small window over the backdoor.
Now, anything coming after my family has to come through the front door – and I'll be waiting.
*****
The manananggal slunk around the sides of the DeMartino home, its tongue flicking out in quivering frustration as it approached window after window and found itself repulsed by the presence of cutting implements – as surely as a vampire would be repulsed by garlic, or a religious symbol in the hands of a believer.
It was frustrated further unintentionally by Claire DeMartino's green thumb. Wanting plants that were a bit unusual, Claire had brought several cacti with her when she moved in with Anthony. The front room held several of the prickly plants – including a particularly proud specimen of a miniature barrel cactus that sat on an end table not more than a foot from the front door – effectively barring the creature from the home.
Eager to get inside, it paced about the back yard, restless and angry, its tongue flicking constantly as it tasted the scent of the still-unborn child inside the DeMartino home. The manananggal let a howl escape her lips-
The creature was suddenly flattened into the soft earth, screeching as Tom's eye-beams, Quinn's lightning and Sandi's PFT blasts bathed it in force and flames. "You're not getting anywhere near that baby, freakshow," Jane hissed; the manananggal began to struggle as she wrapped it in a magnetic cocoon so tightly that its wings were pressed flat around its body. "Tom – how do you kill these things?"
His eyes still glowing blue, Tom moved closer to the struggling creature as he looked her over with his shape-vision. "Whoa. You should see this. Since you've got it under wraps, maybe we should call Colonel Armalin and let him call somebody to come and study-"
"You stupid - if I wasn't busy right now I'd slap you!"
"Jane – look out!"
Jane grunted as Sandi knocked her out of the way of a filthy-smelling tendril extending from the being's steaming entrails, and Quinn screamed as a tendril speared straight at her forehead – but was suddenly frozen in mid-air. "It phased through your field," Tom said, helping the girls up as the manananggal hung in the air helplessly, quivering in total rage as it was unable to move or even speak. "What did you do? It can't move-"
"That's because of me," Danielle said, her eyes hard as she made a casual motion with her hand, and Quinn nearly fainted as the rancid extension of entrails slowly drew away from her and wrapped around the creature. "I'm a 'grafter'- remember? That means if it's made of human flesh…I can work with it."
Even Jane shuddered as Danielle turned and walked towards the creature, her voice unnaturally calm. "What that means, you unholy bitch, is that you belong to me."
"What the hell is that?"
The Legionnaires noticed Anthony on the porch, a machete in hand. "It's history," Jane said, tapping at Tom's shoulder. "How do we get rid of it?"
Tom exhaled; Sandi took a moment to snap a few photos of the creature with her cell phone camera. "We can't – not until sunrise. You can kill them easily if they're not reattached with the rest of the body."
Jane looked at the creature, its fearful eyes flickering from face to face as Danielle kept it held fast. "Not until sunrise, hmm? We can arrange that."
*****
Its entrails and wings fused against its body, the manananggal screeched in anger and fear as it rocketed skyward in a bubble of magnetic force, pressed flat by the acceleration and unable to move as the bubble shot out of the Earth's atmosphere.
As the bubble shot around the curvature of the planet and crossed the terminator into the dayside, the creature screamed a final time and then dissolved into flames as the bubble dissipated; what few remnants of the creature not destroyed by exposure to sunlight, exposure to vacuum, hard radiation and cold were burned up in re-entry.
*****
"That's getting a bit clichéd, you know," Tom said, using his omni-vision to confirm the creature's demise. "Every time you want to get rid of something, you space it."
"I'd say that's something for you to think about if you ever cheat on me, you know?" Jane smiled sweetly at him, as she went to Anthony. "Mr. DeMartino-"
"After tonight, Jane, you call me 'Anthony'." He sheathed the machete, and sat down on the back steps. "What was that - thing?"
The sudden sound of a newborn baby crying from within the DeMartino home was faint but unmistakable, and Jane took Anthony's hand. "Congratulations, Mister – Anthony! I think somebody wants to see you!"
Anthony shook her hand as he rose, and waved the others inside. "All of you – please come inside –and thank you. Thank you all for protecting my-"
He hesitated for a moment. "My family."
As the other Legionnaires and Danielle went inside, Tom took Jane's hand in his. "You know, I just realized something," he said. "You know, those things are repulsed by items in a religious manner, they fly about on bat-wings, they have to be in before sunrise and sunlight kills them."
"Okay…"
"And you killed one of them on your own. Yeah, we helped stop it, but it was your kill. You know what that makes you, don't you?"
"What?"
"Well, your brother could say it best-"
The former Legion Leader saw what was coming. "Don't say it-!"
"Janey, the Vampire Slayer!"
"Ha, ha, very funny. Shame you're not this creative when your pants are off."
Jane smiled sweetly at him, and a chastised Tom followed her inside.
*****
In the hyper-luxurious, beyond-A-list quarters dubbed the 'Divine Suite' in the Lawndale hotel known as the Imperium, the being known as Black Majesty smiled as he watched the sun come over the horizon.
Another problem taken care of. The Legion and their allies will find Sara's remains in her home, and from there, search out and destroy the remaining members of her coven, and all of the others that they have turned or infected. I'll have no more competition from her and her followers… and this now belongs to me.
He relaxed his fist, opened it – and the golf ball-sized scrying crystal in his grasp soared across the room to rest in a silk-lined teakwood box; the box closed and locked on its own.
Miss Lane. She has become far more, it seems, than I first believed when I last made her acquaintance… as Miss Morgendorffer has, also. She is also far more aggressive, more powerful – and more alluring – than I first noticed. Perhaps I should call upon her, on my next visit to this area.
He walked across the room and slid into bed, where Aisling McBain and Nosiah Haji Rahmat were still sleeping. Besides - I believe these ladies will require my full attention. They're still quite unhappy about not locating this man who violated them – Mr. Veggie, I believe. I'll have to help them find his whereabouts - so that they may discuss with him… the full depths of their displeasure.
I'm certain that he'll be pleased that I was able to repair their minds, allow them to keep the memories of their violations – and use the butchering of their minds to my advantage.
Aisling snuggled close to him. In the future, the Legion may prove as useful to me as they were today. They were so easy to manipulate, to turn upon Sara's trail… and all I had to do was draw Miss Griffin's attention to the window.
*****
"Emily Jane – that's a pretty name, if you like the classics. Of course the DeMartinos would ask Jane to be the baby's godmother," Quinn said, sipping from a steaming cup of hot cocoa. "Jane's always been one of Mrs. DeMartino's favorite students, she's been seeing a lot of them lately – and there's the whole 'knowing that the monster was coming to get them' thing."
"That does tend to put you on people's good side – you know, warning them that a creature straight from Hell's suburbs was coming to get them, and then, getting rid of it for them. Not that the rest of you Legionnaires didn't help."
Danielle, now dressed in a borrowed warm-up suit – both girls had changed from their costumes - sat across from Quinn as they ate breakfast. "The word went around about the way Colonel Armalin does a debriefing when you guys were at the Academy last semester. They weren't kidding. Next time I come to a party you guys have, I'm staying near the snack table. Less 'Tales From The Darkside', more 'pigs in blankets' and cupcakes, and no six-hour debriefings from those 'First Registry' guys."
"I think you impressed the Colonel, though – I don't think he expected you to be able to be on the ball enough to use your powers in combat. You being a Healer, and everything."
"No, I understand what he meant. I wasn't trained for that; it's just that I saw what it was doing, and I decided that I wasn't going to let that thing hurt you."
The room went quiet for a moment; an angelic smile went across Quinn's face, one that brightened as she watched Danielle suddenly break eye contact, and continue to tear through the giant waffle in front of her. "You know, Jane's not here. You don't have to go so fast on that waffle."
Dark eyes blinked; Danielle looked at her questioningly. "Oh. Jane's got a waffle thing?"
"That and pizza. If you're ever in a room with her, my sister and a pizza, let them eat first – you might end up missing a finger or two. If they get one of those E.B.A. pizzas – run for the hills!"
"E.B.A.?"
"Everything But Anchovies.' They're huge pizzas – the last time they had them was when The Alliance guys came to visit."
"Cool." Danielle finished the last of her waffle. "If I get a chance to come back this way, maybe we can, you know, get one of those pizzas."
"Maybe."
Danielle finished her milk, and rose from the table. " I guess I should be going now. Jackson – he's one of the guys in my cadre, back in school – he's going to gateway me back to the Academy."
She turned to the door when Quinn stood up. "I never said 'thank you' for saving my life last night," Quinn said, her voice turning Danielle back. "I was – I don't really freeze up like that, I mean, I'm the one that usually jumps in first, blasting stuff and thinking later, my mother talked to me once about how I need to stop doing that before I kill somebody or make people come after me, and then when I should have blasted something apart I just froze up and you saved me-"
Danielle crossed back across the room and silenced Quinn with a kiss; she held Quinn's face in her hands, and felt Quinn's hands on her waist as they both took the barest of breaths, and then suddenly, came apart.
Quinn's eyes were wide beyond belief. "Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit!"
Danielle's eyes were just as wide. "Yeah. I liked it, too."
Fire seemed to explode from Quinn's eyes. "That's not funny!"
Danielle nodded. "I know."
Without another word, the two found themselves embracing, kissing passionately, and they suddenly parted.
Danielle was first to speak. "That was definitely not funny."
Quinn slipped from her embrace like a greased ferret on uppers. "I gotta go!"
The carrot-haired Legionnaire scrambled out of the room and into her bedroom; Danielle winced at the sound of the door slamming and a lock clicking. She stood there for a moment; shaking her head, she turned and left Quinn's apartment.
END
19 November 2008