iCarly: iMeet the Relatives: Chapter 25: Battle

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I don't own iCarly, of course.

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Chapter 25: Battle

At the Burger King: Jillian was wondering why this ridiculous mortal establishment didn't have more jalapenos to put on the burgers.

At least they had some. Most mortal "food"—what passed for food here—seemed terribly bland to her. Why make food with no taste?

Although she'd sooner be tortured than admit it, she was moping there in the restaurant. Not only were Grif and the Snitch getting to have all the fun, here she was stuck here on the topside of the planet, all by herself. No Roger. No Spencer. Nobody.

Grief.

So she sat there, resting her chin on her arms in front of her, and moped. She'd ordered a large drink, and was disappointed to discover that the "Orange Lava Blast" was actually a cold drink. Would it be so impossible for these stupid mortals to make a drink containing actual lava? Wouldn't that just be truth in advertising?

She was so engrossed in her own misery that she didn't notice the small rat scampering up onto the table in front of her. "Lady? Miss Jillian?"

What the-? "Grief. I can't get away from you guys anywhere, can I? And I've told you: I'm no lady. I'm a demon. Don't forget it."

Stuffins stood up on his hind feet and looked at her. The rat's gaze was actually making her a little uncomfortable, like he was seeing something below the surface. Then he said, "Miss Carly and Miss Sam are in trouble! They went to that garage where Miss Brittney's apartment was supposed to be, and something caught them! You've got to come help them!"

"Oh, I've 'got to,' do I? And why precisely is that? I'm not their babysitter. They made their fire, they can bathe in it."

"Come on, Miss Jillian! They need you!"

"Give me one good reason-* At that moment, somebody behind the counter shouted, "A rat! Quick, somebody, kill it! The Board of Health will shut us down!" One of the workers grabbed a broom.

Jillian felt her temper starting to rise. "Ex-cuse me? The rat is with me. You leave him alone!" Then, "C'mon, Stuffins, is it?" She sighed. "Let's go charge to the rescue." One flip of her shadowcloak, and they were gone, leaving the clerks and the other customers to shake their heads. But several of them just shrugged. This was Seattle, after all.

{{Hey, Snitch.}} Devlin was startled when Jillian 'pathed him. {{Jillian?}}

{{Yeah. I got word there's an active Darkness intrusion at that garage where your little mortal groupie thought her apartment was. Sam and Carly are there, and Stuffins, here, is telling me they're in trouble.}}

{{Sam's in trouble? I'm—make that we-are on our way.}}

Shortly, the three of them materialized on Linwood, the two demons shadowcloaking in, with Grif appearing in his usual electric tornado.

Things had taken a turn for the worse.

The garage looked like it had been hit by heavy mortar fire. They couldn't see a single intact automobile. I hope there was nobody in there, thought Grif. He thought, and his golden armor appeared around him, the sword materializing in his grip, its inherent energy producing a bright glow. He noticed the two demons had extended and activated their tridents, which were glowing with Hellfire. "What happened here?"

"Not sure," said Jillian. "The rat just told me something caught the girls, something that changed as he watched. That sound familiar to you?"

"No, but it might be something from the Darkness. Something that was trapped there. What were they doing here, anyway?"

"Dunno."

Then they heard a tiny voice coming from Jillian's pocket. "Mr. Grif? I think they were looking for some reason why Miss Brittney was in the Darkness."

Grif nodded. "Stands to reason, though it doesn't really sound like Carly." He looked around at the devastation. "But what happened here?"

At that moment, they saw something emerging from the rubble. It was large and more-or-less anthropomorphic, with a robotic-seeming body topped by a huge crystal sphere. There were no eyes or any other features.

And it had three arms, terminating in plastic spheres. Within each sphere was a human: Carly was in one, Sam in another, and Spencer in a third. Spenser was apparently replying to an earlier question by Carly. "…Told you, I followed you. I figured from the way you two were acting, you were probably gonna do something stupid." He put his hands up against the walls of his own plastic prison. "Looks like I was right."

"So you went and did something stupid right along with us? Spenser. What. Were. You. Thinking?"

"I was trying to look out for you, Carly! Isn't that sorta what big brothers are supposed to do? Besides…"

Sam, encased in her own plastic sphere, noticed the three Immortals first. "Hey, you two. Looks like the cavalry has arrived." She noticed Devlin, and her face twisted down into a scowl. "Well, kind of."

"So. Angel. What's the plan?" Both Devlin and Jillian stood ready.

Grif took note of the scene tactically. He could hear, in the background, the sirens of the approaching mortals' First Responder units. They have to move quickly, if they wanted to avoid entanglements.

But no matter what, he was not about to leave the love of his Immortal life in the clutches of some thing. "Okay. Devlin, you and Jillian get Sam and Spencer out of there. I'll get Carly. We can't attack it without first making sure they're safe. Go."

The two demons levitated pieces of rubble, and sped towards their respective targets. "Hang on, Carly, I'm coming!" He unfurled his wings, the golden triangles of Light shining like the sun, and took to the air, at the same time watching the monstrosity, watching for any surprises.

They weren't long in coming. As he sped towards the bubble holding Carly, the thing's chest opened up, to reveal a mass of tentacles, clearly organic in nature, that reached out for him.

He cut through the tentacles, hacking his way through them, but for each one he cut off, two more sprouted from within the monster's chest.

He sped closer, ignoring the tentacles, and plunged his sword deep into the organic core of the thing, channeling his power into it.

To his amazement, the organic "heart" seemed to drink in the energy charge, sprouting even more tentacles. "Watch out, you two! This thing seems to absorb energy!"

"Let's see it absorb this." Devlin had closed in on the plastic cage that held Sam. Now he channeled a blast of Hellfire directly from his trident, straight into the thing's heart.

The organic heart fell back before the mighty heat, but rallied, and came back with more tentacles, some now reaching out for Devlin. "Uh, I think you got its attention, Devlin," Grif remarked, even as he hacked and cut his way towards Carly. "This may get complicated." He could hear the sirens drawing closer. "Hang on, Carly, I'm coming!"

Jillian had reached the plastic bubble that held Spencer. "Let him go!" And she brought her trident down on the thing's "wrist."

Supercharged with Hellfire, the trident cleaved through the strange metal—if it was metal—like the war axe of God Himself, completely severing the bubble from the monster it belonged to. The bubble started to fall, but she reached out and caught it, thrusting her hand into the internal material of the thing, wresting it upon the piece of rubble she was levitating, Not bothering to use her trident, she burned through the substance to Spenser by hand. "C'mon, Spence! Grab my hand!" Spencer did so, and was hauled out of his former prison. Jillian let the "hand" of the thing fall to the ground. "Thanks, Jillian. I owe you big time."

She looked at him, just for a moment. That was an attractive thought. "Yeah. Yeah, you do, don't you?" She smiled a dirty smile, even as she maneuvered her piece of rubble away from the main monster. "Maybe we can…discuss that later."

Meanwhile, Grif had hacked his way through to the plastic bubble that held Carly. "Grif! Look out!" He turned just in time to deflect another set of tentacles.

With one clear swipe, he cut into Carly's prison, grabbed her hand, and hauled her out of the bubble, holding her with his left arm, while he continued to cut his way through a forest of tentacles. "What is this thing, anyway?" Carly asked.

"Probably something from the Darkness. You were looking for a, well, maybe not so much a portal as a connection to the Darkness, weren't you? And it seems you found it. Sometimes things come out of the Darkness. Horrible things." He pointed with his sword, even as he flew them both away to a safe distance. "Case in point." He flew a bit further. "Now what were you doing here, anyway, exactly?"

Devlin had reached Sam's bubble. Sam was torn between two emotions. On the one hand, she hated Devlin for deceiving her all those years, but on the other hand, this situation sure sucked.

He burned his way through the bubble, all the while noting that the thing's chest tentacles didn't seem to be all that interested in him. They'd mostly targeted the angel, Gryphon. Why? "Come on, Sam." And he grabbed her hand, and hauled her onto the piece of rubble he was levitating, immediately moving away from the monstrosity, and joining the others.

As soon as he landed, she jumped off the piece of concrete and ran to Carly's side. "Carls! You okay?"

Carly put a hand to her head. "I'm fine, Sam. Are you okay? Spencer?" They both nodded yes.

By now the EMTs had arrived, and the first of the police cars disgorged their officers. "Holy crap. What is that thing?" said one, scratching his head. Maybe he should get the AR out of the car…

"It's something from another world," Gryphon told them. Behind them, the giant had rallied, extruding more "arms," and clumsily, but with seemingly unstoppable power, reached out, seeking something or someone to put in them. "You can't fight this thing. Tell your men to fall back."

"Yeah? Who're you?"

Gryphon faced him squarely, golden armor gleaming like the sun. "I'm the angel in charge of protecting Earth from just such things as this. And I'm telling you, unless you want your men to find themselves trapped in those plastic bubbles, you'll fall back. You can't fight this thing with ordinary weapons, anyway." Devlin stood just behind him, while Jillian stood with Carly and the others.

Grif turned to her while the captain was still processing this outrageous factoid. "Jillian, take the others back home. Devlin and I will stay here and fight this thing."

"Hey! How come you get to have all the fun!" she pouted.

He appeared to consider. "You're right. You and Devlin stay here, and I'll take Spencer and the others home."

It was amazing how fast her face changed. "Oh! Uh! Uh, right, yeah, I mean, yeah, you're in charge, I, I'll get these guys back home. C'mon, Spensie." And she shadowcloaked them all back to the Shay's apartment.

Once back there, Carly made straight for the TV, turning it to the local news. "…just now streaming live from our correspondent on Linwood. It seems to be some sort of mechanical monster, but who are those two…beings attacking it?" The news feed showed Grif and Devlin strafing the thing, with Devlin blasting it with Hellfire, while Grif concentrated on amputating any limbs that looked suspiciously hungry. They could see the perimeter the police had established. "Reports indicate a SWAT team is on the way…"

Brittney had just come out of the room where Freddie had been tutoring her. She saw Devlin dive-bombing the monster, trident blazing, and gasped. "Oh, god. Please don't let him get hurt!"

Sam just made a huffing sound, crossing her arms and turning away. Devlin could take care of himself.

(Couldn't he? Why did she feel this odd twinge at the notion, the possibility that he could get hurt? For that matter, why did she resent Brittney's obvious infatuation with him?)

They watched as Grif and Devlin fought the monster. Reports were that the military had been called in for a possible air strike. Carly wondered privately if Jemiah had anything to do with that. Or BenDarian.

Speculation ran high as to who these "superheroes," as the media were calling them, might be. There were several zoom-in shots of Devlin, in his red and black uniform, trident ready and charged, riding his piece of concrete, shadowcloak trailing behind him, a look of grim determination on his face. Carly (and, privately, Sam) had to admit he cut a fine figure.

If there were real comic-book-type superheroes, Devlin could certainly be one of them.

Such was Carly's concern over the battle, and Grif's well-being, that she didn't even notice that Spencer and Jillian had stolen quietly away.

In Spenser's bedroom: Spencer was discovering the exact meaning of the term "sizzling kiss."

He'd never been kissed like this before. Jillian was different from anyone he'd ever known. He found himself responding automatically, pulling her hips in, and reaching up for her chest, even though her uniform was in the way.

But at that very moment, she broke away, gasping. "Uh. Spencer. I, I really should, should explain some things to you."

"Do you really have to right now?" He nuzzled her neck, at the line where her skin met her uniform.

"Yeah, I really do. Look." She pulled away a little further, holding him at arms' length. "You know I'm a demon, right?"

"Yeah," he said dreamily. "You're my kind a' demon."

"Hold those hormones a minute. I just want you to know what you're—what we're—getting into here.

"I'm not a human being. Yeah, I look like one—and, yeah, in, in all the ways you're thinking—but deep inside, I'm a different form of life than anything you've ever imagined. I collect souls, Spencer! Or at least, I'm supposed to, maybe once the Black Throne decides I can once again. But I don't know if or when they will.

"Do…do you know what that means?"

"Well…I guess, technically, no. Tell me." He tried to control himself. Every fiber of his being wanted her, wanted her in a way he'd never wanted any girl ever before. All the others faded from his memory.

"It means," she said, "that I can collect your soul, the entirety of your being, into a force-globe, and basically own it, forever. That's the only way you'd ever be able to survive in my home dimension, anyway.

"And yeah, it means we'd be together forever.

"Forever's a long time, Spencer." She looked straight into his eyes, complete seriousness in her gaze. "I don't know if you're ready for that. It's a condition sorta similar to your Earthly marriages, but, in this case, no divorce is possible. It just isn't.

"So I wanted you to know that.

"But," and here she smiled a naughty smile. "That doesn't preclude us having a little mortal fun here and there. So…there's that." Now she drew him back into her embrace. "If you want to, I mean."

He felt his heartbeat racing as though it would never stop. "Yeah," he replied, "I'm pretty sure I want to."

"Then I'd…better make sure the door's locked," she breathed, drawing him over to the bed.

The door's lock snicked shut audibly, all by itself.

Back on Linwood: The two Immortals continued their battle. "Devlin! Draw its attention! I'm going for the head." Devlin complied, pouring Hellfire into the thing's chest, forcing it back.

Nothing that lives can tolerate Hellfire.

Grif flew in closer, always mindful of tricks or traps the thing might have. He reached his destination, and, with one swipe of his sword, severed the glowing crystal "head" from the main body of the monster. After that, the combination of angel Light and Hellfire proved too much for the thing, and soon it lay in melted shards and blackened tentacles, strewn up and down the street. "That," said Grif, "was way harder than it had any right to be." He hadn't dared to Speak against the thing, for fear the probability effects would wash over the nearby humans.

"So what was that thing? And," Devlin looked back at the rubble that was the parking garage. "And are there more? Why did it want to ensnare humans? And," here he turned to the angel, who was still hovering over the street, as was he, "was it just my imagination, or did it seem to target you more than anyone else?"

"It wasn't your imagination." {{Aunt Maggie? Have you been watching?}}

{{I have indeed.}} she 'pathed back. {{And your demon friend is right: it seemed to go after you, specifically, It may have trapped Carly for that exact reason: to bring you out into the fight.}}

{{But why would it do that? It's almost like it was designed as an angel trap.

{{Uncle Jemiah—and High Command—need to be made aware of this. Also, be sure to secure that crystal "head." Some answers may lie there.}}

Then Grif and Devlin heard an amplified voice coming from the humans' military strike team. "You there. Come down here."

"Should we?" asked Devlin. "I sense a complication in the making here."

Grif sighed. "Yes, let's go and let them know, at least, that this thing is dead. If it was ever alive to begin with, I mean. And get that crystal head—it may answer a lot of questions."

"Hmph." The two of them flew down to the secured perimeter the humans had established.

"Who are you?" asked the captain, who seemed to be in charge. "And what was that thing? How did you take it down? Just who, exactly, are you.?"

Grif sighed. This was going to take some explaining.

To be continued.