STREET FIGHTER – LUCIFER'S STYLE
While Lucifer makes his way to Constantine, Linda is still beside the female angel, or what's left of her. Azrael can barely remain sited and has to take support on the wall behind her. Her breathing is ragged and every breath she draws is accompanied by a hiss of pain.
"Brother! Please hear him out!" She desperately tries to say but her voice barely carries past the psychiatrist's ears. Between her weak state and Lucifer's rage boiling up, her sentence is lost into thin air.
Chloe's Living-room – Short before midday
Lucifer picks the blond man up and helps him back to his feet, as if he weights nothing more than a ragdoll. His break is short lived because as soon as Constantine's feet hit the floor, Lucifer immediately slams him again in the next wall, his left hand back on his throat, gripping again like an iron claw. Constantine's eyes shine with mischief.
"I see you're still the same old Devil Luci, and yet you're different!"
"I asked you a question, and I don't usually repeat myself, Johnny!"
"You're talking a lot, but for now, I'm still alive. The Lucifer I knew back then wouldn't even have made any threats. He would just have snapped my neck."
Lucifer's grip tightens and Constantine lets out a strangled shriek, his face becoming a bit purple. "Nothing would please me more than to end you right here, but I need answers. And since I'm no longer in Hell to welcome you, I guess I'll just have to get my answers out of you the old fashion way" His smile growing. "How did you do this to me and why?" He repeats his question, his tone scary calm.
Constantine shows his throat and lets out a small whimper to let Lucifer understand he needs to loosen his grip if he wants him to talk. Lucifer unclenches his hand just barely enough.
"I don't know how it happened. Your dear Sis' decided it. I was only the henchman in this matter. As for the why, I'm as clueless as you are. She did not tell me anything." Constantine replies. "But given her situation, I'd say someone up there is pissed at her."
Lucifer's grip falters slightly as the truth hits him, but not enough for Constantine to break free. However, he does take a much needed deep breath. "She fell." The Devil says, more to himself than to anyone in particular. "She fell!" He repeats more forcefully, his anger coming up full force, his face changing along with his mood. He takes his collar with both hands and slams him again on the wall, leaving a hole where his back was. "WHY!" He yells.
Constantine winces in pain at the shock of his back with the wall. He can take pain, but even he has his limits. He hides it with a grin. "Easy there Mate. If you want to have any answers, you better keep me in good health. I, unlike your sister, am under the Old Chap's protection."
"Is that so?" He grins widely. "Well then, I guess I better make yourself comfortable. Wouldn't want to upset Him, now would we." He says rearranging Constantine's coat.
"Well, that's bett…." Constantine starts to reply. But before he can finish his words, Lucifer grabs him again and sends him flying with all his might across the room, straight onto the couch. The furniture lets out a huge crack upon the landing of the body of Constantine, or maybe it was his ribs. Before he can sit up, Lucifer is on him, ready to hit him until he decides to talk.
Chloe chooses this moment to open the door, slightly moving Azrael in the process. The image she sees is pure chaos. Linda is kneeling beside Azrael, giving her a glass of water, helping her to drink and trying to get through to the crazy Lucifer, telling him to stop, but to no avail. This very Devil is above a man wearing a trench-coat with 35° outside, hitting him in the face, his knuckles red with blood, although whose blood it was, she couldn't tell. His face is bruised. He must have shrugged off a few hits as well. The man under him is laughing like a maniac. She looks around the living-room. The wall near the window is almost crumbling down, the coffee table is broken, and this time, not because of their nightly activities. The couch doesn't look better. "What the fuck" She thinks. Then she loses it.
"What on Earth is going in here?" She walks towards the 2 men and says, furious "I leave you alone for 3 fucking hours for a therapy and come back to this. It's the apocalypse in here." She pauses, realising the unintended pun. "Don't you dare smile!"
Linda can't help the smile forming on her lips. The tone Chloe uses is extremely similar to the one she uses to scold Trixie. She almost expects her to use his full name to address him. It would have sounded something like that "Lucifer Samael Morningstar!". After picturing this situation, she lets out a laugh and Chloe turns to her, finally seeing her "You find something funny Doctor."
Linda stops her laugh immediately. She answers, hiding her smile as best as possible. "No Chloe."
Then she turns to Lucifer again. "Lucifer!"
Finally the Devil hears her and looks up from his punching-ball. "Chloe!" He says, surprised. Then he goes back to the task at end. "I'll be with you in a minute!"
Chloe is dumbfounded. "Add this to the list of the things I thought I'd never say" She thought. Then she says "Just stop hitting the guy in the trench-coat! And talk to me! What's happening?"
"He knows what happened to me!" He simply replies.
"And you think beating him up will make him talk faster?"
"Maybe not. But it sure is fun!"
Constantine takes the opportunity of having the Devil momentarily distracted to land a punch square in his jaw. The very close proximity of the detective increases the force of the blow and he is stunned for a few seconds. Constantine takes the upper hand in the fight and he straddles him. He starts hitting him in the face. Lucifer protects his face as best as he can, but the Detective makes it hard for him, despite his angelic metabolism, to recover from the blows. Then Constantine feels a weight hitting him at the back of his head. "Bloody Hell!" He says before falling to the floor holding his head and trying to stop the bleeding. He starts to sit up and tries to stand. Chloe holds him at gun-point.
"Stop it! Both of you. Or I'll shoot!" She says. They finally stop fighting when they see the gun, Lucifer fully aware of what a bullet wound feels like and Constantine not really ready to try out his luck with the woman, who, apparently, tamed the Devil. But the look between the two of them confirms to Chloe the fight can start again at any point.
"He started it!" Lucifer tries to justify himself to Chloe, sounding like the child Linda envisioned earlier. "He's the one who knocked me out and kept me locked up in that cave for days."
"It's still not a reason to kill him. And a dead man is less talkative than a breathing one." She keeps her gun on Constantine and says, her tone very much like the one she uses to intimidate suspects "Who are you?"
"Well Luv, I am the one and only John Constantine, or Hellblazer as my fans like to call me." He says grinning.
"If you had any!" Lucifer snickers.
"Never heard of you." Chloe simply answers, ignoring her Devil's previous comment.
"Well that's a shame. You don't know what you're missing!" He says smiling. "I've told you who I am, but I don't know who you are. Although I'm starting to guess!".
"Detective Decker." Chloe answers. "So I would remain still if I were you!"
"So you are THE Detective. The one every one's talking about." He pauses looking at her. "The rumours don't do you justice at all Dear Chloe."
Lucifer stands up, his anger renewed again with the flirtatious tone the arsehole was using with HIS Chloe. The detective has to put herself between Lucifer and Constantine again. She puts a hand on his chest stopping him in his track, while keeping an eye on the other blond, so he doesn't run away or try something stupid. From what she'd seen, they both could be pretty unpredictable.
Linda jumps into the conversation.
"Lucifer. Your sister needs medical help. She was trying to tell you something earlier, but she fainted before she could say anything. She was asking you to listen to whoever he is."
"She'll be fine Doctor." Lucifer dismisses Linda's comment.
In the meantime, Chloe makes her way to Constantine and decides to handcuff him to the heater for safe measure. Having secured the cuffs to him, she sits beside the fallen angel and checks her wounds.
"She's right Lucifer, your sister is bleeding a lot. She needs medical attention!"
"Of course she is. Why do you think I brought her here!" Comes the voice of Constantine behind Chloe. She turns around and sees him, cuffs dangling from his wrists.
"Of course he can this as well!" She says.
"What?" He asks before going on. "Anyway, you can't bring a fallen angel at the hospital. You'll just have to take care of her here"
"How can you do this? Are you some kind of demon or celestial creature?" Chloe asks. Then she turns to Lucifer. "Is he like you?"
"Please Detective!" Lucifer looks truly appalled by the thought of being compared to the human near him. "Him and me are nothing alike. You wound me Chloe." Then he moves closer to his sister. His face pales a little upon seeing her injuries. Despite the dark top she's wearing, the blood stain is clearly visible. He suddenly realises he was way off regarding his diagnosis. He panics, but not long enough for the others to notice. He composes himself and takes a closer look at the wound.
"What happened? Who did this to her?" He says, lifting the shirt, but stopping when he hears her hiss. Constantine averts his gaze and doesn't answer.
"Did she become mortal because of her fall?" Chloe asks, worried and curious at the same time.
"It doesn't seem so." Lucifer answers absent-mindedly. "The wound seems to be healing." Then he looks back at Constantine. "Again. What happened to her. How come she got hurt?"
"I don't know what happened." Constantine pauses. "We had just dropped you off in the desert. When some weird lad just appeared out of nowhere, took out a sword and stabbed her, knocked me out and left."
"And I suppose you didn't see any face or special attributes on him, or her?" He says more to himself.
"Well he had a big sword."
"A big sword?" He says mocking him. "Why were you spared?"
"Hell if I know!"
"Do you know anything?" He sighs.
"You above all others should know He works in mysterious ways."
"You think Dear Old Dad is behind all this." He thinks for a bit. "It would be extreme, even according to his standards."
"Whether he, or she, was working for Him or not, it sure wasn't human."
"What makes you think Dear Old Dad is behind it all?"
"A hunch. I mean, Azrael first came on Earth to follow His orders, but then you had to convince her to give you the Blade, and split it in 3 after the fallout with your mom. And your Dad did not like your sister disobeying Him."
"And my wings?"
"I said the spell that allowed them to grow back. But that's all I did. She'll probably know more." He sneers. "After all, she's the one who forced me to do it."
"Forced you?"
"Let's just say, I owed her a favor or two."
Chloe jumps in and interrupts their little dialogue. "So when she got stabbed, you just figured, why not bring her here so she can bleed out on my carpet."
"Well. I wasn't about to abandon her in the middle of the desert. And since we hitch-hiked him here, I figured it was where he lived." He smiles. "Then the lovely women with the glasses opened the door. But I have to admit, I did not picture you living in such a place. It's very domestic and very unlucifer like." He finishes.
"Although the company is lovely, I do not live here." He answers, smiling at Chloe. "I live in a much higher and fancier place."
Chloe elbows him. "Hey"
"What?" He says puzzled. "It's true."
Azrael winces loudly. This draws the group's attention back to her. Constantine takes this as his cue to leave them. He claps his hands. "As lovely as this meeting has been, I'm off then!" He heads for the door. "Call me when she wakes up."
"Wait!" Chloe says drawing her gun.
To her surprise, Lucifer lowers her arms and calmly says. "Let him go. He'll be back." He looks around the room, trying to find the best spot to lay Azrael down, so she can recover as soon as possible. She may have fallen, but just like Lucifer she kept her angelic powers, one of them being the possibility to heal herself.
He decides the couch is the best solution for now. As he lays her down on what's left of the couch, he realises the mess he made in her flat, especially the window and the wall near it. He looks at Chloe. "Please accept my apologies for the mess. I'll make sure someone comes over to fix your window, the wall and this piece of furniture." He smiles at her.
"You better!" She answers more for good measure than really out of anger. "How can I stay mad at that face. It's almost annoying!" She thinks. "This is not what I had in mind when I decided to come home to check up on you."
"That makes two of us then." He says, putting his hand on his sister's forehead before going back to the kitchen to get a wet towel. "You hungry?"
"Starving."
"I have some leftovers from this morning. Are pancakes and omelet working for you?"
"Yes."
"Doctor?" He says "You want some?"
"Sure."
He seels to hesitate. "How is she?"
"Stable for now." She takes a look at her top. "She's doing better than when she came in, and she seems to be healing faster."
"That's good news." Chloe says. "You, however, look like Hell." She says touching his face. "You should get cleaned up and I'll heat the food up."
"You're right Chloe. I am a mess. How uncivilised of me. I'll be right back, unless you want to join me and help me wash up." He winks at Chloe. She rolls her eyes and push him towards the stairs.
When he comes back, Chloe is sitting at the counter, Linda is near Azrael, applying the wet cloth on her forehead. The angel's shirt is a bit up and Linda sewed the cut shut to help her heal.
"Ladies! The Devil is the place." He says, coming down the stairs.
"You feel better?"
"As good as new." He says. "I feel like my devilish self again!" He grins.
Chloe can't help but smile. She can't resist adding "Your ego seems to be as good as new as well."
"Darling. It was never bruised in the first place."
"Never noticed it!" Before he can reply she goes on "So. You care to explain who this Constantine guy is and what on Earth he's doing here."
"If I must." He says. He sits next to her. "Where do you want me to start?"
"What did you find out with your session with Linda?"
"As you saw, the arsehole who knocked me out is John Constantine. Apparently, he also gave me back my wings, although the when, how and why is still a mystery." His eyes flash red. "He's also the one who kept locked in that bloody cave. And now he's here. And that's not a good sign. He was also in cahoots with Azrael."
"And what or who is he? Is he some kind of celestial being?"
"First. He is 100 % human and doesn't have a hint of angelic blood in his veins. However, he somehow managed, at some point, to get in touch with the divine world. He taught himself spells that allow him to travel between worlds and planes. This way he can fight demons or evil in general, and apparently now he can make lost appendixes grow back."
"So he works for God, I mean you Dad." She laughs nervously. "I still can't believe God is your Dad!"
"In a way." Chloe looks at him quizzically. Lucifer takes the hint to go on. "He cut him a deal."
"What was it?"
"He offered his services to Him in exchange for his life."
"So apart from being an ass, he is also selfish."
"Yes and no. The only time we met was in Hell. He was on a mission to get a girl I had welcomed in Hell. Her name was Astrid, she was 10."
"But she was only a kid. I thought kids were not supposed to go to Hell."
"They're not." He pauses. "Constantine's knowledge comes from an ancient book he found. But this knowledge had a price. In order to perfect his art, he had to regurlarly summon demons to fight them. Astrid was an abused girl. She barely had enough to eat, so one day she saw him practising in an alley of Liverpool and she stole Constantine's book, thinking she could get some money out of it. The book was filled with spells. She saw the perfect opportunity to get rid of her abusive father as well, so she summoned one of my demons. Things got out of hand and she was dragged back to Hell along with him.
"So he made a deal to save her."
"Not really. That would have been the simpler way." He pauses. "But no. He decided to die so he would land in my realm, kick my ass and get her back. When he realised he was screwed, he begged Daddy for a deal and basically wrote him a blank check. In exchange for her realease from Hell, he was to be his fighter on Earth whenever it was needed."
"So that's how you met him?"
"Indeed. It was 20-25 years ago." He thinks for a short moment. "I did not recognize him when he appeared. As opposed to me, he did aged in the meantime."
"And his relation to your sister?"
"I'm not sure yet. He seems to owe her something. Whatever it is, it's big."
"And here I was, thinking you were the one specialised in making deals."
"It runs in the family. Let's just say mine are fair and less treacherous!" He gives her a sexy smile. "And at least they involve some carnal desires and a lot of fun." He places a kiss on her shoulder and whispers "Feel free to strike a deal anytime you want. The Devil's buffet is always open for you."
She looks back him, almost forgeting the rest of the world to get lost in his eyes, but her phone bips in her pocket.
"Always that bloody thing." Lucifer says.
"The suspect for a big case I'm working on arrived at the precinct. I have to go."
"When will you be back?"
"I have to pickup Trixie so I should be here around 5:30." She smiles. "In the meantime, try to tidy up a bit." She says while closing the door.
"I thought you had Maze for that." He answers, going back to this time she wore the maid outfit for a job interview, thinking it would do wonders on Chloe. But before he can add something else, he hears the voice of Linda and the soft moan of the angel.
"Lucifer. She's waking up!" Linda says.
Now that Azrael is awake, the crossover is going to be put aside for a bit :). I just had to explain a bit of background story for Constantine, and the story to come.
Now I'll be focusing on Deckerstar and the Tribe and Trxie, and an undercover case somewhere, maybe linked to that big case the Detective is currently working on :D.
Thanks again for all the reviews, favorites, readings and everything. It's really appriciated.
