Lita stared down the pathway towards the Screaming Wall, standing next to the tour bus. She hadn't really expected Mangus to bring it, but he had rightly pointed out that as long as they were here, they should go ahead and get spare amps to keep at Bladehenge so they wouldn't need to make this trip more than necessary. And then upon seeing the bus getting ready to make a trip, quite a number of Headbangers, Razorgirls, and Bouncers had made come running, wanting to take a ride "for old time's sake." So what had started out as a simple equipment gathering excursion had quickly turned into a giant field trip, complete with kegs loaded, blankets being spread out, and food being shared for a community picnic.
She supposed there was no harm in it...the girls had brought their weapons, as had she, and of course the guys were always ready for battle. There were still a few roving packs of Drowning Doom members, or, far more likely, angry wandering Tollusks, so keeping prepared was a necessity. And everyone had promised to help with the loading and unloading both ways. So she merely stood aside and watched for Eddie and Ophelia's arrival while her subjects enjoyed themselves. Mangus himself was actually not partaking in the festivities at the moment, he was currently under the bus with his best mechanic, a Headbanger named Jack, and they were wrenching away at something under there, and for the time being, she just left him to it.
Fortunately, today everyone's timing seemed to be ideal. They'd only been here about half an hour before she saw the Deuce in the distance, speeding towards them. She stepped back around to the front of the bus, letting Eddie pull in beside them. He and Ophelia, both now in their usual working clothes, were apparently laughing about something as they pulled up, and both leapt out of the car as it came to a stop.
"Afternoon, queen Lita," Eddie said, still grinning widely.
"What's got you two in such a good mood?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Ophelia and Eddie traded a look, which was enough to set them both off laughing again, Ophelia actually leaning against the side of the bus to brace herself up. "S-sorry Lita..." she said, wiping tears from her eyes. "We...we got to talking about Rima and Kage...and the baby..."
"And...and Ophs said...said she hoped Rima took off her arm spikes before she tried to hold it...and I got this mental image of Kage trying to hand her the kid..." He held out his hands, though balled up in fists, as though trying to awkwardly juggle something that way.
Both of them immediately got hysterical again, although Lita merely raised an eyebrow at them. She supposed it was a mildly humorous thought, though not quite to the level of mirth these two were displaying. But then again, it wouldn't be the first time the two of them were laughing at something that she just didn't get.
After a minute or two, though, they finally calmed down enough to be able to speak normally. "Uh, sorry about that, Lita. You know how it is...you just get to laughing and can't stop," Eddie said, with a bit of a goofy grin.
"Uh-huh," Lita replied, though as much as she tried to keep a stern look on her face, the barest bit of a smile cracked through. "Let's go get these amps, huh?"
"Lead the way," Eddie said with a bit of a salute, and the three of them moved forward, calling out to other members of Ironheade to get ready to get on their way.
( )
A distance beyond, high on the cliffs above even the Screaming Wall, something was watching as the Ironheade troops began to move along the wall, taking care around the powerful amps and bits of lava that occasionally broke loose. None of them were aware of the silent watchers, they were too busy chatting, laughing, and generally having a good time.
At the front of the group was who they had come to observe. The son of Succoria, the Axe Wielder, he who had slain their previous emperor, was leading the humans forward, the weapon resting on his back, crossed with the familiar and deadly guitar. He and the blonde woman, the human leader, were talking and gesturing to the speakers, apparently discussing which sets they were going to harvest. Finally, after just a bit of walking, the group halted, and The Axe Wielder stepped away. Immediately, his change began. His skin darkened, and hardened. His hands formed talons, short and stubby, his hair toned from the darkest shade of brown to a deep blood red. From his back thrust two expansive clawed wings, webbed with red...and even from this distance, the glowing gold of his eyes was visible. He took off into the air, flying up to the very top of the Screaming Wall, landing next to a bank of speakers and fiddling with them a moment, then detaching a large bank, momentarily faltering under the weight before bringing the large group of amps back to the ground, setting them down for the humans to gather and return to their large transport, even as he took off to get more.
"Our new emperor is near," the leader of this observing group growled softly to the congregation behind him. "We must liberate the son of Succoria from the humans in order to regain what is rightfully our's."
There was a general hiss of agreement, a shuffling and wave of motion from the assembled mass behind him. Their leader nodded forward. "Let us make this our final charge. We will rebuild our hierarchy and our race will be reborn!" He pointed one long, thin, bony finger forward. "Bring me the son, so that we may begin our ceremony..."
The amassed creatures let loose another hushed declaration, and the group surged forward, deceptively silent, rushing in an awkward formation towards the relaxed Ironheade group.
( )
Eddie brought down another bank of speakers, adding them to the pile he'd already harvested, but stayed on the ground this time, looking up. "Not many seagulls out today. Usually you can't walk through here without getting a few dozen of them in your hair."
"It is a little weird," the Headbanger next to him said, lifting up one of the amps and turning to start carrying it back to the bus. "But who's complaining?"
Eddie shook his head slightly, glancing around, something that didn't escape Lita or Ophelia's notice. "Eddie, what's up?" Ophelia asked, looking up from where she was untangling a seagull's cord nest from the top of a previously brought down amp.
"I don't know, just...it's awful quiet. There aren't any animals around...not the seagulls, not any Tollusks, not even a ground urchin. It's weird."
"Well it's not like they've learned to avoid you or anything," Lita said, helping a pair of Razorgirls lift an amp so they could start carrying it back to the bus. "You do periodically run around slaughtering masses of them."
"Hey...I haven't done that in weeks!" Eddie snorted a bit, then took to the air again.
Lita shook her head, but she turned a somewhat suspicious look to the land around them as well. Eddie was right, it was rather unnaturally quiet. She wasn't sure what to make of it, but it did make her uneasy. She turned to call back up to Eddie. "That'll be the last one. We need to go ahead and get this stuff back to Bladehenge."
"Whatever you say, boss lady!" he called back down to them.
Ophelia glanced to Lita as she finished cleaning up another speaker. "You got spooked all of a sudden."
"Well...we don't need too many of these. Still gotta save some room for everyone to ride back and all that. Besides, Eddie can't haul down that whole wall by himself."
"Mm," Ophelia grunted noncommittally, handing off the clean amp to another Headbanger...but the man didn't take it, he was staring into the distance...maybe. It was always hard to tell exactly what Headbangers were looking at. "Hey, what's-,"
Abruptly the man turned, lunging at her, and Ophelia cried out as she was caught off guard and flung to the ground by the bizarre attack, but then there was a solid THONK sound from where she had been standing, and when she looked, there was what looked like a long, pronged arrow embedded in the speaker.
"DEMONS!" the Headbanger shouted out as loudly as he could, causing nearly everyone around to swirl and look, including Lita and Ophelia.
The man was right...from a hill near the coast, charging up towards them, came a large cadre of what looked like the old Tainted Coil. Ophelia could easily pick out a few dozen Soul Kissers, several Punishing Parties, a few Battle Nuns, and two of the beasts who's heads were spiked iron balls attached to their bodies by long, thick chains...Skull Rakers, she thought. They were rushing right at the Ironheade group, arrows from the Punishing Parties already flying. She could hear others crying out in surprise, alarm and pain, but just as quickly, she saw Ironheade members charging the demons, the Razorgirls who had grabbed their cannons already taking pot shots at the demons as they moved forward.
"Attack! We're under attack, Ironheade, get to it!" Lita called out to the others, as she grabbed her own halberd from her back and pulled it to a ready position, seeing Ophelia drawing her swords. Within a second, an amp smashing into the head of one of the nuns from above let her know that Eddie had joined the battle as well, in his own unique way.
"Fucking demons? After all this time?" he was asking as he landed beside them, whipping loose his guitar and sending bolts of lightning at the nearest Soul Kissers. "We haven't seen any of the Coil since the war ended!"
"Apparently they were just biding their time!" Lita called back, charging forward. She could sense rather than see Eddie and Ophelia flanking her on either side, and they entered the fray with sweeps of weapons and slashes against the demons. The creatures were fighting with the ferocity they were known for, swinging and slashing violently at the Headbangers and Bouncers that had engaged them in close combat, while the Razorgirls were focusing their attention on the two giant Skull Rakers, trying to avoid the enormous mace whenever it went flying. Lita felt Eddie drop back, but she heard the sound of his guitar playing again, and a wave of light flew across the battlefield, filling her with a sense of increased energy and causing her weapon to begin to glow gold, as did the weapons and dressings of the other warriors. Just a second after, there was another tune, and the sounds of pained screams and bodies hitting the ground. "Bib, shirt, face!" Eddie cried out, a rather abridged version of his usual taunt. Despite living in peace for a year, it seemed no one in Ironheade had lost a step.
Still, this was a dangerous situation. The Thunderhogs weren't around to heal, and they had none of their usual vehicles for backup. Eddie could only cast so many spells before his guitar needed to recharge, and he'd already used two. But she just gritted her teeth and went at one of the nuns as fiercely as she could. Their only option at this point was to fight, to try and repel this impromptu insurgence of demons as quickly as they could.
Lita swung her halberd into the nun's leg with a hard THUNK, causing the creature to shriek and swipe at her violently. Lita pulled her weapon loose and blocked the attack, stumbling back a bit, and tried to sweep back at it. Beside her, she was aware of Ophelia rushing in, and the two women struck at once, each going for a leg, causing the nun to scream in agony as each limb was nearly severed off. The demon staggered a moment, even despite the gold aura of healing that was evident around her, the damage the two women dealt out was enough to fell the beast. At that, they split apart, helping the men with the smaller enemies while the other girls continued to blast shots repeatedly at the Skull Rakers.
Eddie, meanwhile, wasn't exactly slacking off. Though he wasn't using his guitar, he didn't particularly need it, as currently he was hacking his way through a Punishing Party. Three of the feminine creatures had fallen already, and he was turning his attention to the last one, ignoring the Pinboy. The slave had never been a threat, he mostly just sat there while the females did all the fighting, and if it's female masters were slain, the pitiful creature would actually slay itself in grief.
So he had thought nothing of turning his back on the pinned demon to take down the demoness...and when the thing crept up behind him, pulled a pin from it's side, and stabbed it hard into his shoulder, to say he was surprised would be an understatement.
"OW! You fucking bastard!" Eddie cried out, spinning around to bury his axe through the beast's neck, sending it's head rolling, and whirling back to behead the demoness as well. He growled in irritation, reaching back to grip the pin and pull it out. He'd been stuck with quite a few of these pins in his time, so it was immediately obvious that there was something different about this one. It felt oily, as though it had been coated in something, and he could see a yellowish residue on his fingers from where he'd gripped it. Not to mention a strange numb pain that was now radiating from the wound and spreading into his arm, into his wings, and across his back alarmingly rapidly. "Well. This is just great."
"Eddie? You okay?" a blonde Razorgirl called out, running to his side, firing off another shot before reaching out to touch his arm.
"I'll be fine, but I think they just drugged me with something...real poison demon juice," Eddie replied, wincing when he found himself involuntarily shifting back to his full human form. "Kill the other Parties quick just in case they have more of those sorts of pins..." He grunted and staggered a bit, dropping to a knee as he felt the weird ache continue to cross his body. "And stay out of the reach of the slaves...apparently the fuckers've learned how to fight back."
"Maybe I better stay with you," the girl said worriedly, popping off a shot at an encroaching nun.
"No, just beat the demons back and I'll be okay," Eddie said, though his words were starting to slur vaguely. "I got a tooth extracted...once...felt sorta like this...'cept now...whole body full'a Novocaine..." He groaned, putting his axe down and gripping the handle in both hands, using it for support, looking as though he were fighting to stay awake. "Hurry up...kill those...things...quick..."
The Razorgirl was clearly torn, but ultimately moved to do what Eddie said, running forward into battle, taking aim for one of the remaining Punishing Parties. Eddie scanned the battlefield quickly...a lot of the demons were dead, and though there were quite a few members of Ironheade with visible injuries, they were all still fighting valiantly. It looked like a good bet that they were going to win this. "Well...that's good..." he wheezed out, before closing his eyes and slumping silently to the ground, out cold.
Lita was busily stabbing her halberd through another Soul Kisser when one of the Razorgirls ran to her side. "Lita, Eddie says he's okay, but he's down. He says the Punishing Parties are carrying some kind of tainted pins and we have to take them out as fast as possible!"
For just a split second, Lita's heart froze in her chest at being warned that Eddie was down, even if it were preceded by an assurance that he was okay. Not far away, she could see Ophelia react to the announcement as well, but both women knew that the fight had to continue; Eddie's condition wouldn't matter if the demons overran all of them. Instead, Lita called out to everyone. "Take out the Parties, everyone, then worry about the others!"
The army called back to her in the affirmative, nearly all of the attention being shifted to a pair of remaining Parties, battering them quickly. Lita was somewhat impressed to see that a large fraction of the demons were already destroyed, including one of the Skull Rakers and the majority of the peons. The brute force turned on the Parties wiped them out in a matter of moments as well, Lita finishing off the last Pinboy herself. All that was left now was a handful of Soul Kissers, a single Battle Nun, and the last Skull Raker...
...all of which, seemingly without a word exchanged between them, abruptly turned tail and bolted again, back the way they had come, with the Skull Raker bowling over anything that got in it's way, cradling it's spiked head in an awkward position in it's arms. A couple of Bouncers moved as though to try and follow, but were pulled back by their Headbanger comrades.
"Is everyone okay? What was that? Dudes, are you hurt?" Ironheaders started calling to each other, everyone running to check on each other, examine injuries, or just express bafflement at the bizarre attack that had just taken place.
Lita frowned deeply at the retreating backs of the demons. She had never seen demons retreat in her life, not from simple skirmishes, full-out battles like this, or even cases where the foul creatures were outnumbered by a hideous amount. Something about this didn't sit right...she wasn't sure what, but there was definitely a sense of foreboding that came from the situation.
Ophelia wasn't concerned about it at all, apparently, she merely flung her swords into place and grabbed the Razorgirl who had warned them about Eddie, turning to run back to check on her beau. Lita watched her go, but turned her attention to the rest of Ironheade, starting to move among them and survey the damage. So far as she could tell, no one had been killed, which was a minor miracle in and of itself, but there were some pretty serious injuries. Someone would need to be dispatched to the Killmaster, hopefully so that he could come and help them out. "Is anyone in condition to run?" she shouted, looking around.
One of the Headbangers, a gray-haired man in a metal helmet, ran forward. "I can, your majesty."
"Run back to the bus and tell Mangus we need the Killmaster and his men...that the Coil have returned, and we need their help."
The Headbanger nodded in that peculiar way Headbangers did, and turned, taking off running in the general direction of where they had left the bus. It would probably take him a minute or two to get there, and then a fair bit longer for Mangus to get to the mountain and recruit the help, but at least it was on the way. Lita blew out a long breath, putting up her halberd, rubbing her arms and wincing at the soreness she felt from several hits and the general exertion. "Out of practice..." she grumbled to herself, but before she could reproach herself too strenuously, a borderline hysterical scream broke through.
"Lita!" Ophelia was rushing towards her at full speed, an expression of pure horror on her face. "He's gone! Eddie's gone!"
"What do you mean, gone?" Lita asked, feeling that nasty chill in her stomach again.
"He's not in the field! I can't find him anywhere! It's like he's just disappeared!"
There was a hushed gasp from the other members of Ironheade, and Lita took on her queenly role once again. "Anyone who has the strength, spread out and start searching," she ordered. The army didn't need to be told twice, and any of them who were capable of movement took off running in various directions, searching for the missing roadie. Lita looked to Ophelia, biting her lip before speaking as reassuringly as she knew how to the other woman. "He can't be far. We'll find him. He probably just tried to make it back to the bus."
It was clear Ophelia didn't believe this, and Lita didn't either...but for the time being, she hung onto that hope. As much as Eddie tried to downplay his own importance, Lita knew losing him would be a devastating blow to the morale of everyone in the land, and she couldn't bear to think about that. They had to find him...for his and everyone's sakes.