On the other side of New York City...
The last of the large crowds had already passed through the gates and only the stragglers were left to come. The two portly security guards assigned to Gate 66 were arguing over who was going to win tonight, the white one favoring the Comets loudly, when the wind started to pick up.
Their gazes turned to the outside, instantly locking onto the largest gap in the parking lot. Four points of bright yellow-white light were rapidly expanding, accompanied by the increasing rush of air. But there was no sound of a helicopter to indicate that some high-up political power-player or rich celebrity was arriving late for the game. And why four lights instead of one?
The black guard pushed through the turnstile and jogged out, holding his ball cap to keep it from blowing free. He reached the perimeter of the lights, now each easily three meters across, and peered upwards.
"Well? What is it?" called out the guard who had remained behind.
"Its-" CRACK! a shot rang out and the exposed guard jerked, pitched over backwards onto the asphalt.
The other guard jumped as if he'd been shot himself. He fumbled desperately for the radio on his belt, dropping it in his panic. He was on his hands and knees digging for it under the base of a turnstile when four gleaming black military helicopters dropped into view and set down on extending landing gear. They lurched, wide blades autorotorting nearly silently in the night air, then they were still and their side doors slid back. Black uniformed soldiers poured forth, each clutching lethal-looking H-K XM8 carbines. They sprinted for the door as the guard recovered enough to reach for the emergency button. The two soldiers in the lead snapped up their weapons and opened up, nailing him in the chest with twin streams of high-velocity slugs. He lurched backwards and fell dead to the floor.
A moment later their leader stepped free from his chopper, followed by Alyona. Behind her came two men with drawn Glocks, herding a straight-jacketed Hope between them. She struggled at the canvas restraints but they were reinforced with cords of titanium, too resilient even for the strength of a Slayer.
Without a word the lead group entered the building, their leader taking point, and after him poured a double line of soldiers, fed first from the four military helicopters, then later from the armada of black Humvees that had begun arriving moments after the helicopters touchdown.
They piled into the huge building and split up into threes and fours, subduing whoever they came across in the many restaurants and bars spread out through the entertainment complex. This was happening at six other gates as well, the entire air and land compliment of the Initiative Complex's vehicles were now strategically surrounding the uptown building. Nobody else was coming in and not a soul was getting out without their master's say so. And he wasn't saying so.
As of now, Madison Square Gardens belonged to Ethan Rayne...
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Faith's rapid sprint had ended five blocks away next to a four lane thoroughfare, and she crouched beside the curb, as the thinning traffic winged by in both directions, disassembling the tote she'd extracted from the Complex.
Claudia rounded the corner of a warehouse breathing hard and came to a halt, her back to an instant teller. She looked across at the older girl beside her, "Wow...you...move really fast when you're pissed."
Faith didn't answer, she just stood, kicking the now empty bag away, and the younger blonde shrank back. But it wasn't just the scary looking projectile weapon now gripped in her right hand or the brown leather bandolier slung crosswise over the woman's chest, notched with a descending row of fat cone-nosed copper shells. No, mostly it was the terrifying expression on Faith's sultry face, Claudia had never seen one like it. She looked like the entire Universe had done her wrong and NOW she was going to get even.
I would not want to be that Rayne guy right now, the junior Slayer digested as she backed up fast.
"Stand back." snapped Faith and she stepped into the street.
"Way ahead of you."
The Slayer marched through traffic, cars screeching and honking all around her, and came to a halt in the third lane. She turned and slung the compact grenade launcher over her shoulder, then slowly raised her gaze and locked it on an object she'd already selected, as it bore down on her at sixty miles an hour.
His name was Buford Koch and he was three hundred pounds of scarred and grizzled menace, a member for life of the Plutonic Kobolds, a biker gang who even the NYPD were afraid of.
Faith wasn't afraid.
Koch's goggled eyes locked on the woman in black standing directly in his path and his busy eyebrows went up. There was no time to swerve his Harley, she was expanding before him too rapidly, "HEY! GET OUTA THE-"
Faith sprang forward and into the air, caught the wide handlebars and inverted, landed on the fat gas tank and drove her left boot into his chest with a THUD!
The biker flew free and backwards, landed hard on the asphalt five meters back. Still facing the wrong way, Faith dropped into the customized leather saddle and reached behind her, squeezed the brake. She jammed her feet down and the heavy cycle ground to a leaning halt. She lifted a leg and pivoted round to face front, unslung the M-79 from her shoulder.
Claudia gawked in astonishment from the curb, "Holy crap..."
Cars and trucks were now halted in both directions, twisted in and out of their lanes, while horns blared up and down the four lane street. Claudia nervously stepped into the road and weaved her way past the cars and their shouting motorists to reach the senior Slayer where she sat upon her new transport.
The younger girl tore her eyes from the Harley's gleaming cherryblack paint-job and took in the weapon Faith was toting. It closely resembled a large bore, single barrel, sawn-off shotgun, much like Xander's Elsabelle, though the barrel was wider and it had a sling. Faith opened the breach and inspected the bore. It had been fired a few times. "Works for me." then she slid one of the fat 40mm H.E. grenades from the bandolier and inserted it, flipped the one-shot "blopper" grenade launcher closed with a snap of the wrist.
"I'm...I'm coming with you." the younger girl said in a rush.
Faith scowled and shook her head, "No. Just go back to the Reserve Station, Claudia."
The other girl pouted, "Nope. I'm coming. I'm a Slayer."
"You don't even know what that means."
"You and Xander have been training me for two weeks now, so-"
"Two weeks." Faith snorted harshly, "You just don't get it, do ya? This ain't gonna be no cake-walk, this is for real. Some serious mojo is about to be unleashed on this city and-"
"-and I'm going to help stop it." snapped the girl, her eyes hardening, "It's my destiny."
"Destiny?" Faith laughed, "Destiny is a bastard who needs his balls handed to him, don't you get it? This Slayer gig will ruin you, Claude. It turned me into a murderer, and killed Buffy Summers twice. Look, you're only sixteen, you've got your whole life ahead of you. Just go back home to Indiana now and forget-"
"You bitch! Get OFF my hog!" roared Koch as he reared up beside them. He reached for Faith with a grubby mitt and-Claudia blocked his way and caught his wrist. She glared up at his twice-her-height stature.
"Get...lost..." she growled, her formerly soprano-pitched young voice transformed into a husky rasp that made the bear of a man blink.
He yanked his arm free of her grip and pulled a large .44 Magnum revolver from his jacket, leveled it at the diminutive blonde's face, "I told ya, get off my-" her hand blurred up and the gun was hers, she bent double and delivered a kick that knocked the driving goggles from Koch's eyes and sent him flying backwards, over the hood of a convertible.
As the biker crashed unmoving on the sidewalk, all the honking stopped at once, and Claudia caught Koch's goggles from the air and snapped them on over her own eyes. She stuck the pistol in the waistband of her jeans and swung onto the Harley behind Faith, "Let's motor."
And the older Slayer grinned, "Yeah, lets motor."
She shoved the M-79 across the handlebars, through the clutch and brake cables, then roared off in a squeal of peeling rubber...
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The Gardens...
The Initiative had taken over so fast none of the 18,000 ticket holders in the basketball Arena were even aware of it. It didn't hurt that the much anticipated game was about to get under way. The Houston Comets players were already waiting along their side of the wide court and within one minute they would be joined by the challenging hometown team. Hyped rock music echoed across the open air stadium and the seated crowd was enjoying the cool night air as it breezed down from the star-flecked nocturnal sky.
Nobody noticed the lone figure as he emerged from the tunnel exiting beside Section 116, though the heavy Carpathian wool cloak he was shrouded under would have caused notice if they had. Fearlessly he marched down the steps to ground level and threw out a hand. Red-gold energy crackled forth and blasted the Employees Only gate open before him. A pair of burly security guards zoned in on him, meaty arms rising to tackle, he flung out his arms and blasted them back in a flare of power.
This got noticed.
A confused murmur spread through the assembled crowd and thousands of pairs of eyes turned in his direction as he strode out onto the gleaming pine court and stopped in the exact center. The New York Liberty members were jogging out through their door on the opposite side and he waited until they were all assembled, then he threw up his hands.
"Mida Conticesco!" he commanded in Latin and everybody froze.
Everybody. All 18,000, plus staff and players.
Nobody moved, nobody even breathed, as the massive suspension spell took hold. The only noise now was the annoying organ music, now ten times as loud as no voices were muting it. Rayne extended a hand and a bolt of power wiped out every last speaker, and then it too was gone.
He grinned savagely behind his cowl, "Perfect. Yes!" he shook his fists in excitement, the sense of sheer control was nearly overwhelming. Ever since he'd discovered tonight was the night for the final phase he had given up rationing the power his master had infused him with a year and a half ago.
Because there was no longer any need whatsoever. If Ripper could only see me now...
He could waste it all he liked and it wouldn't matter because HE would soon be here and when he took over Ethan would have all the power he could ever want, so to hell with worrying about his reserves running dry and the glamour currently mesmerizing the Initiative to his will running out.
They'd be all dead soon anyway. HE didn't like anybody but his own personal soldiers having any kind of power, and that meant that all mortal armies on Earth were about to become just a memory. Like freedom for anybody but the chosen few. Which right now was only him, Ethan Rayne. That's right, he was about to become right hand to a GOD.
And all he had left to do was summon him forth.
"The spell is active, you are free to come in!" he called out, and his soldiers streamed in from all sides, taking up tactical positions all over the Arena. Once they were in place, Alyona entered, followed by the Complex's senior officers, the former General dressed as Rayne, in a heavy wool robe. Behind them came Hope between her two guards, she'd given up trying to struggle, and she looked about the Gardens mesmerized by the incredible events that were transpiring.
Ethan read her expression and grinned, she hasn't seen anything yet, yes indeed...
"Prepare the Circle." he commanded and the officers got to work.
Two minutes later it was complete, and now a ten-foot ring glowed from the center of the court, a five-point magic star dividing it up. Just like the ones before it in Central Park and on the Brooklyn Bridge, each section of the icon contained a different rune, though these were the Bridge's set of transdimensional coordinates, not the ones dangerously experimented with firstly in the Park.
Ethan and the General knelt across from each other and began to chant in Latin.
Two years ago when Ethan had first formed a Circle like this in the basement of the Nevada prison complex he'd been sentenced to by Riley Finn, it had been the opposite of this ring; designed to send him out of this Earth and into another one. And it had worked perfectly on the first try, to his own amazement.
For more then a year he had traveled from one dimension to another, searching for the power he would need to return to his home realm and gain revenge on those who had wronged him. And finally on a dark plain of limbo he had found what he sought, and so much more. The being imprisoned there had infused him with a taste of it's own power and sent him back home, even allowing him to take with him Gwendolyn Post who had already been there when he arrived, a broken plaything for the realm's master.
Rayne had been shocked to find her there and at the time it had appeared she would make the perfect ally and servant to help forward his plan once he got home. HE had even returned her soul for the time being and given her a gift of power in the form of a bracelet, though it was only a fraction of that which had been infused into Rayne.
It should have been the perfect alliance, so of course it wasn't...
Soon after their return, Gwendolyn began to buck his authority and after she had used her knowledge and new-found abilities to take control of the Oranak vampire clan she had stopped following his orders all together. But Rayne really could care less at that point; he had his own group to manage now and Post's ghouls proved useful in rounding up the Slayers he needed to fuel his experiments in interdimensional summoning. It was one thing for a mere mortal to crossover, that was child's play. But to free the master from his prison and bring him forth to the one place he had been exiled from, now that would require precise calculations and planning.
But all that was done now. The wait was over. What Ethan had failed to do on the Bridge would now be successful here. The Ley Lines were at their peak and enough Chosen blood had been gathered. He was ready.
As the chanting continued, a powerful charge began to rise and red energy crackled along the Circle. Rayne and the General finished the first incantation and touched hands, cementing the ritual, then Ethan gestured Alyona forward. She reached the pulsating ring, then hesitantly stepped into it.
She looked back at the stands, where the restrained young Slayer stood, hair flying in the wind disturbance coming from the ritual, her desperate eyes darting in all directions, looking for a way to escape. Alyona looked back to Ethan, "Shall I bring the girl down? You must be ready to use her as the receptacle to house your masters essence."
"Actually no." he replied, rising and reaching forward to grasp her shoulders, "You see, Comrade, I have all the Slayer blood I need. The sacrifice requires a normal mortal, of good physical shape and purity of mind."
"But Lieutenant Peyton-"
"-is in the hands of the enemy. And you on the other hand are here. Ad Conticesco!" red-gold energy flowed from his fingers and cocooned her. Then it was gone and the wide-eyed Russian witch stood frozen like a statue. He slid her forward to the center of the Circle.
He waved the General forward and he poured a heavy vat of blood over Alyona's head. It coursed down her body and coated her fully, crackling with power as it came.
"It was nice knowing you, Alyona. Enjoy Arboria." sneered Ethan, then he stepped back and finished the incantation, "Eriyshon, hear my prayer! Open the gates between this world and the one indicated!" power sizzled from his hands and the Circle flared with mystic light.
"Open the prison of Limbo and bring my master forth! Abi!"
And there was a tremendous flash of light and a huge roar of sound and-Alyona vanished into an energized spangle of red-gold power and HE stood there in her place!
"YES!" yelled Rayne in jubilation and fell to his knees, bowed his head to the court. Across the vast and towering Arena, the Initiative soldiers situated amongst the frozen crowd did as their leader. They fell to their knees in supplication, pressed their rifles to their chests and bowed their heads.
Iridescent smoke pillowing the varnished deck beneath his sandaled feet and rising up to zephyr the knee-length hem of his glistening crimson toga, the ten-foot promethean opened his eyes and surveyed the huge chamber he now found himself in, "YES..."
His head rotated first this way then that, revealing him to have not one but two faces, the second mounted on the back of his skull. Both were identical and echoed each other's malevolent expressions. His bearded faces grinned widely, his twin pairs of near-glowing eyes danced excitedly. He raised monstrously-muscled arms and shook his fists to the ebony heavens, "I HAVE RETURNED! THE EARTH WILL ONCE MORE TREMBLE UNDER MY WILL, THE WILL OF THE GOD JANUS! AFTER TWO MILLENIA I STRIDE THIS PLAIN ONCE MORE AND NONE SHALL STAND AGAINST ME! NONE!"
"Oh, I beg to differ." spoke a voice from seven levels up.
Ethan and his master looked up sharply to see Gwendolyn Post standing on a railed landing in the North Quad. The wind blowing down from the open roof of the Arena plastered the beige overcoat tight to her body and her released blonde tresses blew about her skull like golden flames.
Rayne scowled and rose, raised his hands, they sparkled to life with his granted power, "You shouldn't have come here, Post, you really shouldn't have."
"SO... THE SLAVE WHO HAS BETRAYED NOW SEEKS RETRIBUTION UPON ME?" and Janus chortled madly, his booming twin vocalizations sounding out across the Arena in stereo, "HOLD, MY SERVANT." he commanded to Rayne and the Magus did so, lowering his heavy sleeves and reigning in the spell he was about to cast.
The God stepped forward and raised a hand, "YOU WILL BURN, SLAVE." gleaming gold light coruscated forth from his palm and lanced upwards toward her.
"Penso Occurro." Post intoned and the xanthic beam slammed into an oval force-field which materialized before her. It dissipated in four directions, slamming into seats and people, vaporizing them into charred ash.
Gwendolyn grinned.
Her former master did not.
"MORTAL TRICKS WILL NOT STAND AGAINST ME FOR LONG, SLAVE." Janus raised his arms like wings and levitated upwards.
He came to a hover level with her, fifteen meters above the basketball court, then he slapped his palms together. Gold flame rushed from between them and flashed toward her in the form of a spinning ball of searing flame. It struck her shield and detonated it in a rush of carnic light. Post stood her ground, the smile never leaving her face. Janus threw back an arm and another sphere of destruction materialized on it's palm, "NOW, WOMAN, FEEL MY UNTETHERED WRATH!" and he hurled it at her. Below, Ethan threw up heavy sleeves to cover his face and was glad his soldiers still had their faces bowed.
The fireball struck Post dead-on and expanded instantly into a five meter-wide balefire. It seared and scalded all about her at five thousand degrees, reducing the railing at the edge of the landing to bubbling grey slag and ignighting the deck and wall behind her. Then the flame-sphere detonated outwards in a blaze that would have blinded any mortal looking directly at it, and when the light finally faded Janus looked across at-
Gwendolyn Post! Who stood there proudly and untouched, her naked body gleaming in the harsh Garden lights. The last shreds of her former clothing spiraled down into the heap of ash ringing her perfect toes, and she laughed wickedly.
Janus gaped.
"BUT...BUT...NONE BUT ANOTHER GOD COULD STAND AGAINST SUCH A FORCE!"
"I know." she replied and her face vamped.
"YOU ARE NOW VAMPYRE?"
"She's a vampire?" gasped Rayne, and his face twisted.
"STILL, A NOSFERATU IS BARELY A DEMON. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE THE POWER TO STAND UP TO ME."
"Unless..." muttered Rayne and a cold chill twisted his stomach. Oh bollocks...
"You are correct." Post replied as she stepped forward to the edge of the landing, her bare feet squelching through the liquid steel puddling on the charred cement.
"No vampire has the power to stand up to you, Janus. No vampire from this time period. But the original Nosferatu who stalked this plain, now they were a different story all together. They had the power of the Old Ones coursing through their veins. And now..." her skin scaled jade and the huge Glyph branded into her back glowed like flame, "...so do I..." and it was like she literally exploded a hundred-fold, her body expanding in a rush of bubbling reptilian flesh and then Gwendolyn the vampire was gone.
And Gwendolyn the monstrous dragon was here...
End of Part V...