Chapter 15: Shanghai Moon Madness
Hsi Wu was sitting almost as still as a statue, eyes closed and breathing steady. The bespectacled sumo sitting with a book in hand in a chair facing Hsi Wu, was snoring softly.
Something shifted, Hsi Wu's sixth sense detecting a new disturbance not afar as he tracked his kindred, but in his immediate vicinity; and he opened his dark-brown eyes. A mortal's eye would've seen nothing in the storage shed but the slumbering chi-wizard, but the human Sky Demon only had to pull back his vision's focus to see the pasty-white, pot-bellied man by the wall, dressed in a blue hat, jeans and a jacket that were stained with pale-grey smudges.
"Ah," Hsi Wu sighed with a broad smile. "I was beginning to think you and I wouldn't have a moment alone." The bearded man's countenance shifted, regarding the Sky Demon anew.
"You really shouldn't a' picked that, Chewie." Hsi Wu's mind, and he suspected also the spirit's mind, briefly went back to when the spirit had said those words in Pennsylvania, the surprised demon momentarily looking straight at him before the ambush had arrived. Hsi Wu's mind then briefly flit over times the entity had been lurking invisible near Sam and Dean's shoulders, exclaiming things unheard at them, having no idea that the demon-sorcerer could perceive him.
"You can see me," the spirit murmured matter-of-factly in his gravelly voice. Hsi Wu was delighted – this entity, probably this universe's equivalent to ghosts, apparently craved interaction he couldn't easily have, which meant fun for Wu.
"I've felt you from the moment I arrived," Hsi Wu replied. "Apart from when you vanished from the house for a day."
"Glad to know Big Brother is watching," the fat man drawled. Hsi Wu snickered.
"So you are stuck on your own immaterial plane," the human demon murmured, smiling wickedly. "How long have you been that way for? A month? Longer?" The spirit's lip slowly curled ever-so-slightly. "Ohhh!" Hsi Wu rasped elatedly – he was looking under the right bush.
"Go to hell," the bearded man spat. Hsi Wu leaned backward in his chair, smiling. "So, demon-sorcerers with glowing eyes from Bizarro World."
"In the flesh," Hsi Wu replied sweetly. The bearded man mock-smiled at the veiled jab – he had as tough an outer-shell as his behaviour indicated. A bulb lit up in Hsi Wu's mind though he didn't let his face show the sudden change in thought. "How did you end up this way – helpless, unable to commune with a single mortal?" The human demon's nasty grin spread and his eyes glowed red.
"None of your damn business," the bearded man growled. Hsi Wu chuckled as his eyes reverted to human-looking brown. "I obviously can't mouth off to anyone, and since Belinda-ing your folks for as long as possible is in your best interest, maybe you'd like to tell me how something like me can beat something like you?"
"I don't think so," Hsi Wu rasped sourly, grimacing. He added in a slightly-higher pitch, "You have nothing to offer me."
"I don't," the bearded man murmured, hazel eyes hard and unblinking. "But you're not interested in that reduced sentence for good behaviour?" Hsi Wu's dark-brown eyes narrowed – he was dealing with a gambler who paid attention.
"I have confidence that I'm already earning my merits," the human demon purred, smirking. That and he didn't want this entity lowering the odds that Hsi Wu's jailers might perish fighting his kindred. He shifted slightly, chains clinking. "But I'll propose another trade."
"What's that?"
"My freedom-" Hsi Wu showed his palms emphatically. "-no strings attached; for locating the remaining demon-sorcerers and for making you a new body." The bearded man's eyes practically lit up, interest gleaming.
A pause passed, before the bear-voiced spirit spoke.
"Go to hell." Hsi Wu's only response was to comfortably readjust his sitting posture, dark-brown eyes remaining steely – the spirit had just given the demon more knowledge than he realised.
The dark-green '65 Buick Electra rolled through sunny town's central road, driving just below the speed limit.
"Any update on Prince Lan or his moon-drill project?" Dean behind the wheel asked the passenger seat's occupant.
"He's attending an important conference today, that's about it," Jade murmured, eyes on the laptop between herself and the dashboard, whilst Sam and Jackie were leaning forward as if eagerly expecting some news. "But I don't get it, why hasn't Tso Lan gone to the moon already?"
"He can do that?" Dean asked in surprise, turning his head, and Jackie nodded – Dean was quick to return his eyes to the road lest Uncle reprimand him.
"He attempted to pull the moon from its orbit the first time we defeated him," Jackie murmured gravely, looking back at the laptop screen, though Jade only-vaguely recalled the time her family had been involved with NASA.
"Power of the Moon Demon – control over gravity," Uncle murmured airily in the Buick's back.
"We should take a closer look at this lunar drill thing, find out what he's up to," Sam murmured.
"Right," Dean said, slowly nodding his head – a smile was spreading stupidly on his face. "Which means we're Double-Oh-Seven-ing into NASA." Sam's face pinched in exasperation, while Jade mentally stumbled over what they'd just said.
"Whoa, whoa, timeout," she interjected, making a 'T' symbol with her arms, eyes wide. "You're talking about breaking into the most famous space-launch centre in the United States?!" A pause passed – then Jade's heart-shaped face broke into a smile. "Nice."
She heard Jackie groan in the backseat's centre, could peripherally hear him slap a hand to his forehead despairingly. "I don't suppose you and Sam both have clearance with the Space Centre's staff?"
"'Fraid not," Sam murmured with the slightest hint of mischief. Beside Jade, Dean had broken into a full-blown grin, quietly chuckling.
"NASA, Sammy! Now we're talking!"
Most were smartly-dressed amid the conference in the high-ceilinged hall, red curtain-clothes hanging from the walls. They mostly chatted, or sampled drink and snack from the hall's white-clothed tables. The forty-something journalist approached the tall figure in black pants and a purple top from behind as he dismissed the businessman he'd finished speaking with.
"Pardon me, Your Grace." As the journalist spoke, the tall man with the raven-black topknot turned, maintaining his straight back as his thin, oblong-shaped face with large ears and hollow cheekbones was revealed; thick mutton chops extending to his jawline, ending in two long curls which dangled off his face, a perfectly-circular bindi-like mark on his forehead, thick brows making piercing dark-brown eyes look stern as he regarded the young woman. He wore a traditional-looking purple tangzhuang, and he had a glass in hand which appeared undrunk.
"Ni hao," she greeted, bowing "I'm with the Astronomer Standard."
"Your grasp of the Chinese greeting is somewhat lacking," Tso Lan murmured in his deep voice; his stern frown and regal posture making the remark effective. "Nin hao is used for royalty and nobility."
"I apologise," the journalist murmured, lowering her eyes. She must've leapt on using Mandarin since it was modern China's preferred language. "I wanted to ask you some questions for my paper."
"Then ask," Tso Lan murmured in a slightly lighter tone with a hand-wave.
"What brought you to make a leap from next to no Bhutanese involvement in space programs to backing NASA's new lunar drilling project?"
"Bhutan is trapped between its past and the present reality, seeking to preserve its traditions and paying all the wrong prices," Tso Lan fluidly replied. "In the modern world, international unity triumphs over sentimentality. As Dr. Yamamoto has said, precious resources such as water and gold lie under the moon's surface, waiting to be mined, while the Earth's resources dwindle."
"You don't think that Bhutan isn't ready for such involvement, considering its core role in the project?" the journalist enquired.
"As I am directly involved in the lunar drill's construction, I and the royal family will take responsibility for any technology malfunctions," Tso Lan replied. "Having studied astronomy at institutions around the world, I am confident any such issues will not last long."
"But this is your first major contribution to space travel?" the journalist pressed.
Not a second later, the voice of one of the staff called, "Everyone, it is now one o'clock! Anyone who wants to stay for Dr. Clint's presentation about magnetic energy, or who wishes to stay for the evening break's mini-toast sandwiches-" A few chuckles around the hall. "-I suggest you take your seats."
"It appears we will have to conclude this interview here," Tso Lan murmured with a small, polite smile on his human form's slightly-crooked lips. Without another word, he stalked straight-backed past her, following the crowd's direction as she watched him leave.
After Jade, Jackie (who looked particularly dismayed) and Uncle each got their fake-I.D. headshots taken, Sam got to work editing out the interdimensional travellers' green chi-auras and incorporating the photos one at a time into a card layout.
While he worked, Jade could hear the angular-faced hunter speaking into his cellphone, "Yes. Kadrin chhe la." He hung up. "Okay!" Sam said loudly enough for Jade and Dean to hear across the tropics-themed motel suite. "I just got reporters Mr. Lennon and Mr. Spacey booked to see Prince Lan at his hotel's restaurant for lunch tomorrow afternoon."
"And while he is busy talking with the two of you, I will sneak into Cape Canaveral with Jade and Uncle, where we can learn what the Moon Demon is up to," Jackie confirmed their plan, smiling as he lowered his chi mung bean sandwich which stood next to a takeaway box he'd gotten (chi-filled or not, he and Jade agreed they had no intention of eating nothing but mung beans and bread for however long they were hunting demons).
"How are those fake I.D.s coming?" Dean asked on one of the two beds, not taking his unblinking eyes off the TV programme while Jade was on the other bed's edge.
"Actually, I just finished them," Sam announced across the suite, standing and tucking his laptop under one arm. "I'm gonna run to the local internet café and get these printed." Without another word, he turned and exited out the suite's main door.
"You said this show would have evil spirits in it?" Jade asked as she turned from the TV to Dean, now pretty certain he'd lied as she frowned.
"Whaht?" the hunter exclaimed immediately after biting off a mouthful of takeaway burrito. "No Ih dihdn't! Cohme on, jusht look at Grachie and Talan!"
"Tch. Yeah, my heart's bleeding…" Jade murmured sarcastically, her growing suspicion Dean had sought an excuse to watch this soap-op now confirmed as a reality.
"Jackie!" Uncle's voice screeched, slightly muffled behind the suite's bathroom door. "Help Uncle!"
Jade was surprised, and Jackie sighed as he stood and advanced forward. "What is it now, Uncle?!" The door opened, and Uncle stumbled into the doorway, slightly bent over, one skinny forearm gripping the doorframe while another held his abdomen.
"Uncle has big stomach-cramp!" the old man complained.
"It is probably just bad wind," Jackie said reasonably.
"Not exactly something Dr. Greene would treat you for, Unc," Dean deadpanned gently.
"Plus, you've eaten nothing but those sandwiches for over a week!" Jade added, smiling reassuringly.
"Do not question digestive system!" Uncle exclaimed, wagging his index finger.
"Ah- Okay, Uncle, I will drive you to the emergency room right away!" Jackie quickly relented, reaching towards the old man.
"I can do it," Jade offered immediately, moving to get off the bed, all too eager to escape Dean's favoured programme.
"It's okay, Jade," Jackie said dismissively with a glance at her as he and Uncle passed by. "I hope-" He emphasised the word with an eye-roll. "-we'll be back soon." Jade watched them go with slightly-furrowed eyebrows, Jackie throwing the front door shut behind their exit. A pause passed before Jade got off the bed and walked to the TV set, switching it at the channel dial to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Dean's only response was to widen his eyes and lift his arms in a What the hell look.
"What?" Jade purred mischievously, smirking as she returned to the bed. "You don't like Harrison Ford?"
"Whatever," Dean murmured after a pause, slightly rolling his eyes.
About five minutes passed, at the end of which the two were still on their beds, eyes glued to the screen and chuckling at Indiana Jones' "No ticket", when the far motel suite door flew open and Sam entered.
"Hey." Laptop and paper sheets in hand, the tall hunter took note of the suite. "Where's Jackie and Uncle?"
"Uncle had stomach problems, so Jackie took him to the emergency room," Jade replied, sitting up. Her tone was simply, doubtful.
"Huh," Sam responded, tuning and depositing his luggage on the suite's tablet. Looking back over his shoulder, he said expectantly, "You gonna help me?"
"Nah, your hands are good enough for knitting sweaters, they should be good enough for pocket-sized leather," Dean responded with the attention of an engrossed couch-potato. Sam responded with an eye-roll that could've been seen ten metres away, and Jade vacated her bed-seat and wound around Dean to help him with the fake I.D. work. "Hey, I've been thinking…" Jade and Sam turned their heads as Dean twisted into a sitting position on his bed's edge. "…we could do our Cape homework a day early."
Jade's brows furrowed, and Sam looked confused. "Why?" Then his expression instantly shifted as if he'd pieced it together. "Dude-!"
Dean shrugged in a What manner before Sam could say anything else. "It's not like Sailor Moon isn't busy, being a prince from wherever and all."
"Patience is a virtue!" Sam snapped.
"Besides, if Tso Lan has something magic-related locked up at Cape Canaveral, we'll need Uncle to suss it out," Jade added, putting a hand on the table and frowning at the idea – she didn't like it at all.
"I'm just saying – if we suss the place out in advance, we'll know our way around if things get hairy," Dean said, reminding Jade of a child trying to persuade their parents with logic to give them something they liked. Dean pointed with a raised hand. "You, me, Sam – we're still a three-man team!" Chewing the inside of her cheek, Jade sighed – she knew what Dean really wanted, a chance to open his presents before Christmas with visiting NASA. Dean chose that moment to add, "I mean, c'mon, you've gotta know some stuff about chi-magic too, right?" Jade could've rolled her eyes but didn't, while Sam sighed to the ceiling. She was unimpressed, but admittedly she'd always hoped Uncle would train her to be a chi-wizard (or chi-witch, she guessed), and she'd been pleased to have picked up a couple magic-tricks over the years. Dean, wearing a small smile which made Jade wonder if the soap-op had screwed with his neurons, held Jade's gaze unblinkingly. She shifted her honey-brown eyes to Sam, and he met her gaze before his eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Oh, Jade …!" he groaned, exasperated.
"Proposal," Jade said, looking back at Dean; "if Jackie and Uncle aren't back in forty minutes, we're going…"
"Come on," Sam sighed.
"But if they come back before then…" Jade continued, letting the sentence hang for a second, before she flashed a devilish smile at Dean and said; "…every beer and burger anyone buys before we've beaten the last demon-sorcerer comes out of your wallet." Sam raised his eyebrows before looking at Dean. The elder Winchester's hazel eyes were ever-so-slightly wide, and Jade seriously wondered how Dean was going to answer.
The Audi pulled into the parking lot of the Kennedy Space Centre's Headquarters, the oblong white building studded with neat lines of windows looming above the vast lot against the twilight sky.
"The Moon Demon tries to hijack the moon twice on my watch, and both times there's a free trip to Cape Canaveral in it – in two dimensions at that," Jade murmured, riding shotgun with Dean while Sam leaned forward from the backseat. Sam noted she very much looked the part of a NASA technical staff-member with her dark-blue NASA cap and bright-blue shirt tucked into slim jeans, emphasising her helix-shaped torso – compared to his and Dean's trenchcoats worn over scruffy suits.
"So, we gonna go over the plan again?" Sam questioned.
"I go in, I take a look at the moon drill with Uncle's chi-detector spell-" Jade held up the small green petrified eel.
"You know how to use that thing?" Dean interrupted inquiringly.
"Not this kind of weapon really, but I've used chi-spells before," Jade replied. "How hard can it be?"
"While we," Sam said, gesturing at Dean, "make sure Tso Lan doesn't make one of his surprise visits."
"Then when Jade has sussed out the drill, we hightail it to the hotel, you and me-" He gestured himself and Sam with a waving hand. "-keep him talking about the drill and Bhutan-" He still emphasised the country's name like it was alien. "-Jade gets close a room away and uses the lamp."
"It might make a scene," Jade quipped observingly. "We'll probably have to jump out through a window once the demon's in the can."
"Yeah," Sam murmured, eyes shifting – him and Dean had had simpler plans than this go in a tailspin before, and this elaborate plan wasn't proving to be all that tidy despite Jade's contribution. But from the way the Chans had described Tso Lan as one of the most powerful demon-sorcerers, the trio had agreed they wanted to get him imprisoned as soon as possible, screw making a scene.
"No time like the present to get this show on the road," Jade murmured, smirking as she picked up the freshly store-bought toolbox from at her feet, pushed her side-door open and climbed out. The door shut, and Dean and Sam watched her back as she strode straight to the Headquarters, incognito. Sam's mind wasn't entirely at rest.
"This plan is gonna go wrong somewhere," Dean said sourly.
Jade could honestly say she felt uneasy, walking through NASA with a fake I.D. around her neck. She'd ignored a couple South American countries' laws in non-damaging ways on her college course, and she didn't feel extremely bad about committing a crime in an alternate universe's America; but she'd never committed anything like I.D. fraud before, and it now felt wrong in her gut. At every checkpoint with a security guard, she was worried the pass would have to be scanned into a machine instead of viewed by the staff, or the staff would take a closer look – but that didn't happen.
She held up her headshot-featuring fake I.D. up at one of the last access points. The scrawny guy in security uniform simply nodded his head, then with a buzz, the airtight door opened. Smiling, the NASA cap-wearing, toolbox-carrying woman stepped past the doorway's threshold. She passed down the oblong corridor with chrome, corrugated-metal walls and diagonal supports.
The hangar Jade stepped into after the corridor must've been a-hundred-and-fifty square feet wide, and the ceiling must've been almost as high – overhead white lights lighting the hangar, but it was still dim with shadows collecting in the gaps and crevices of the pieces of giant equipment scattered around. A shiver running up her spine as the shadows brought back a bad memory, Jade strode straight to what she assumed to be Prince Lan's lunar drill. The device was like a satellite and landing module hybrid, stood atop a vast vehicle-ramp with wheels – it was fifteen feet tall and wide with four double-jointed module-legs, equipped with three harpoon-like drills. It had a satellite-like cylindrical body, with a chunk missing to expose the layers below the shell, and two solar-looking panels atop that. Jade put her toolbox down on the floor, opening it and immediately extracting the petrified, wavy-bodied eel – her face was firm and mood serious as she held the petrified thing up, glancing briefly over her shoulder.
"Biao ming xin ji, biao ming xin ji, biao ming xin ji…" As Jade chanted, wispy green chi-magic began glowing around the eel's head, casting slight shadows on her face, before on the fourth repetition a chi-beam fired. It entered the opening on the module-satellite's central body and blazed inside, like there was a miniature green star alive in there. Green light blazed over the entire device for a moment – then dark-blue suddenly burst through the bright-green haze like a tear opening, and with a BOOM of energy, at least four translucent dark-chi tendrils broke off; crackling and undulating. Jade had one second to stare slack-jawed before she was lifted to the air. A console's wheels likewise left the floor. Jade had spread her arms out almost like sails, locks and strands of her hair pointing upwards instead of down. Then, the undulating dark-chi mass gave a violent flash, and instantaneously receded to a crackling, translucent blue orb that half-filled the capsule. Jade fell with a cry. She hit the floor on her rear, and a console violently crashed six feet from her.
"This… is not good," Jade murmured, troubled. Frowning and furrowing her pencil-thin brows, she reached to her toolbox and removed her snail-shell. She aimed it and fired at the dark-chi.
Dean, and Sam who'd climbed into the passenger seat, sat with one arm each resting on their side-doors' window-sills, Sam slowly drumming his fingertips. Dean's gaze shifted when a sleek black SUV rolled inward along the asphalt road running by the parking lot edge. The elder hunter shifted slightly, and Sam saw the same sight. The SUV was the front of an escort, and sandwiched between it and a second SUV was an equally-black Packard, turning into the parking lot entrance, before the Packard and its escort came to a stop practically in front of the building. It made Dean's gut want to twist, reminded of one of Dick's multiple-black-cars grand entrances. From either SUV, a burly-looking man in dark shades and a suit emerged, like presidential guards straight out of a thriller. One of the spooks opened the Packard's side-door, and a tall figure who almost-instantly struck Dean as foreign emerged, standing almost unnaturally straight-backed – his black hair was in a topknot bun, and his long, nearly-oblong face looked slightly-cruel by the dark eyebrows and the prominent lines.
"Crap," Sam murmured, before he and Dean threw their side-doors open and began emerging. They didn't dare make a scene by sprinting, but the men in their suits were still in a slow-jog from the Audi, while Dean extracted his cellphone from his overcoat and speed-dialled.
"Dean?" Jade's voice said into his ear, a crackling noise filling the background.
"Tso Lan is here," Dean said quickly and seriously, "do what you need to and get the hell out of dodge, now." He immediately hung up. The tall man and his bodyguards were passing the Headquarters' entrance's threshold as Sam and Dean approached from behind.
Tso Lan's humanised face was as cold and dark as ever as he passed the KSC Headquarters' lobby entrance, long legs moving almost-weightlessly. His bodyguards – men of Asian descent whom he'd passed off as his fake identity's escorts from Bhutan – flanked his back on either side. The fat human manning the checking-in booth on the left immediately stood and bowed. Tso Lan acknowledged him with a look – as oafish as that mortal was, he knew his courtesies, which pleased the Moon Demon.
"Uh, hey!" Tso Lan turned as the overcoat-clad men burst in behind him – the longer-haired man stopped himself short of running into the bodyguards, but the other was halted by the nearest bodyguard slapping a spring-loaded arm's hand on his shoulder. Journalists by their appearances.
"Hey, okay, we're here because w-"
"Your grace," the longer-haired human murmured humbly, dipping into a rushed if near-perfect forty-five degree standing bow. "I'm John Spacey – my friend and I were supposed to meet you at the hotel in two hours when we saw you here."
"You should be more precise in your timing," Tso Lan murmured darkly before the man could start another sentence. He didn't appreciate modern humans' lack of timing etiquette at all. "I will be at the hotel at the time I scheduled with you." He turned his back and began moving on.
"Please, your grace, we saw you arriving just when we were leaving," the long-haired man protested; "and we thought we could speak with you immediately." The human Moon Demon halted, humming in brief thought.
"Then start speaking," Tso Lan murmured as he turned back to the man, before resuming his course with his suited guards. The humans paused stupidly before moving to keep pace.
"So, why bring this Lunar Drill project to the U.S.?" the long-haired journalist asked, surpassing his partner until he was walking directly beside Tso Lan, notepad in hand. "Why not China or Russia?"
"The International Station's success has taught me about the value of international cooperation," Tso Lan replied, fixing the journalist with his severe gaze; "and I expect members of my family will already be interested in other businesses in the east." While they spoke, the shorter-haired journalist lingered at the group's rear, between and behind the bodyguards.
"Okay," the long-haired journalist murmured, quickly scribbling on his notepad. "How much help have the United States' resources been?"
"They are getting the job done," Tso Lan replied calmly with the slightest dark undertone.
Jade's good-chi beam blazed furiously against the dark-chi from the capsule. Her teeth were grit as she fought the fierce vibrations through her arms – even if destroying the drill now meant they'd lose the element of surprise once the Moon Demon entered and found the aftermath, with what she'd seen of the drill's capabilities, she didn't want Tso Lan using it in a fight. Despite her efforts, she cut off the chi-beam with a groan, and the capsule's dark-chi in turn subsided slightly – her chi-shell alone wasn't enough, not with Tso Lan approaching. She went back towards the corridor linking the hangar to the main facility.
Looking to see if anyone was approaching, Jade leaned through the hangar doorway to the long corridor she'd come from in the same second that the far door began opening to let a deep voice be heard beyond it. "-is why moon colonisation is-" Jade gasped and promptly ducked back into the hangar. "-closer than NASA believes.
"From this point, our business is concluded," the tall demon-sorcerer, standing before the open doorway to the corridor, declared to Sam.
"Just a few more questions-?" Sam was cut off when a rough hand grabbed his shoulder – a bodyguard's shades-masked face was a foot from his, features impassively-cold.
"Don't take it personally men, you're not the first to get the rough treatment," a NASA security man at the desk said. Sam glanced towards Dean, who didn't move as the other bodyguard was approaching him but gave Sam the tiniest shrug. Sam struck first with his left fist, and Dean promptly struck likewise with a kick, either brother taking on either bodyguard, whilst Tso Lan was entering the corridor with off-putting calmness.
"Hey, what the hell do-" Before the NASA security clerk had finished standing, Sam swung and sent him falling with a cry to the floor, out cold – the longer-haired hunter would've said a quick sorry if not for the current situation. A bodyguard lunged at Sam before the hunter could counter him, tackling him to the floor.
Dean was mercilessly pummelling the other guard on the floor, although the second mook got a couple hits to Dean's face in.
Sam got a leg under and kicked the bodyguard atop him off, which send the guard's shades flying. As the bodyguard stopped staggering backwards, Sam got a clear look at his exposed eyes; cobweb-grey with dilated pupils, wormy veins surrounding either eye. Sam stared. The inhuman-eyed bodyguard charged to tackle him again. Sam sidestepped, grabbing him from behind, and threw him headfirst into the desk's front corner. He went down with a cry. Not three seconds later, Dean knocked out the other bodyguard (who'd also lost his shades, revealing the same discoloured eyes). The brothers didn't pause, both their gazes immediately on Tso Lan and drawing their guns. The regal, sophisticated demon-sorcerer was standing halfway down the corridor, piercing dark eyes glaring right back at the hunters. He hummed deeply, then he swiped a hand. Sam and Dean instantly went flying – except unlike all the telekinetic tosses they were used to, they just suddenly moved as if by their very cores. Dean slammed into the corridor-doorway's thick, metal frame, while Sam shot straight through like a basketball in the hoop, before Dean rolled off the rim and into the corridor.
The brothers hurtled, then suddenly halted inside the sterile, bright corridor. They were suspended off the floor in front of Tso Lan. The tall demon-sorcerer's eyes were now all-red, glaring at them. Sam and Dean grunted and shifted their limbs – they could still freely move their limbs about, but were just suspended like planets in orbit – though they kept their hazel eyes on the Moon Demon. Sam's mind was rushing through ideas when a dry-sounding voice muttering indiscernibly caught Sam's and Tso Lan's attention. It was coming from outside the corridor's entrance. The brothers heard the security desk's phone being slammed down.
"Hey, whatever you're doing, don't come in here!" Sam yelled urgently to whoever was there, hoping his voice would also alert Jade in the hangar to the danger. Not a second later, the security desk clerk navigated around the desk into clear view, looking disturbingly unbothered by the sight he was walking towards – then his eyes turned black as the abyss. Demon – the Earth-One kind Sam and Dean were familiar with. Tso Lan swiped his arm, and the brothers' bodies flew at bullet-train speed into a wall. Stars instantly exploded across Sam's vision, and he was vaguely aware he and Dean were sliding down the wall with normal gravity. Dazed as he was, Sam remembered the importance of what was happening, forcing his bleary eyes to look.
Tso Lan was focused on the possessed security-man, who stopped two feet short of passing Sam and Dean.
"A demon of Hell, on the earthly plane?" the human Moon Demon murmured curiously.
"Boy, you are way out of the loop, Airbender," the demon purred in a sing-song voice, removing from his belt what looked like a short-handled, triangular silver pike the length of a forearm. An angel blade, Sam and Dean realised, Sam wondering where the demon had gotten it.
"What do you want with me?" Tso Lan asked the Hell-demon darkly.
"The King downstairs wants to see you," the black-eyed demon purred, pointing the blade tauntingly – while he spoke, two more figures were arriving behind him. "You and your friends got some answering to do for the mess you've been making of Hell. And some." Tso Lan said nothing more, before curling his bony fingers. The lead demon gasped, eyes regaining their human appearance, as he shot towards the demon-sorcerer. The Moon Demon held his enemy suspended, an air of frightening indifference in Tso Lan's red-eyed face and his posture – he curled his raised hand's fingers tighter, and the Winchesters felt that subtle shift in the air that magic tended to cause to make the hairs stand on the backs of their necks. The Hell-demon writhed and struggled like something was wrapping around him, then opened his mouth and screamed, bright-orange light like an electrical fire illuminating the spaces and gaps in the body's skeleton as the possessing demon died.
"Dean, come on!" Grabbing his brother, Sam made a run for the hangar – he seriously feared Tso Lan would stop them from passing, but he didn't, perhaps because his attention was on the remaining demons. Behind Sam and Dean's backs, the next two demons in NASA uniform ran forward, the nearest one to the Moon Demon snarling horribly.
Sam and Dean ran into the dimly-lit hangar, with more screams behind their backs.
A demon-possessed woman slammed to the bright corridor's wall.
"Behold, my mastery of gravity!" the glowing-eyed Moon Demon exclaimed quickly. The final Hell-demon picked up the dropped blade and came at Tso Lan. The human Moon Demon turned to see it coming. The Hell-demon drove the blade to stab at Tso Lan's arm or shoulder area, a fraction-of-a-second before Tso Lan caught his blade-holding wrist and sprained it hard enough for bone to audibly crack – the Hell-demon dropped the blade, and the human Moon Demon's free hand caught it mid-fall. The black-eyed man didn't cry out before Tso Lan threw him vertically-up. The body smashed to the ceiling, shattering an overhead light before gravity dragged him back to earth. Tso Lan grabbed the Hell-demon before he could hit the floor and threw him to the wall, face-first. The host body's nose cracked very audibly upon impact, before the Hell-demon hit the floor near its dazed or dead comrades. Tso Lan loomed over them, glaring down dispassionately – his gestured with a hand, curling the long-nailed fingers as he extended his gravity powers and his very own chi to wrap the Hell-demon in invisible tendrils of his essence. The Hell-demon cried out as Tso Lan's chi squeezed the dark essence in the possessed body. Once he had a firm grip, Tso Lan squeezed, and the Hell-demon screamed as it perished with a flare of orange light. Cold as ice, the human demon turned his gaze. One last security clerk-possessing demon was still alive, groaning on the floor, disoriented – it was quickly regaining its senses now, and scrambling sloppily to get back on its feet and flee. Hard eyes fixed on the fleeing Hell-demon's back, Tso Lan lifted his left palm, and the 意 character encircled by smaller symbols flashed blue as the Moon Demon's own chi fuelled the spell. Immediately, the Hell-demon halted in their run. They turned their head back to Tso Lan, eyes flashing black.
"Tell your King, the Earth belongs to the demon-sorcerers," the Moon Demon murmured very-darkly, narrowing his now-humanlike eyes slightly. The Hell-demon slowly nodded in a trance-like state. Tso Lan deactivated the spell and lowered his arm – he watched indifferently as the Hell-demon gasped and bolted, then turned to the corridor's far exit with a contemplative hum.
The tall, gaunt human demon almost glided into the dim hangar. Gravitokinetically slamming the door shut with a hand-gesture, Tso Lan turned his head left and right as he moved among the huge machines – there was no-one in immediate sight, and very-slight smirk tugged at his crooked lips' corners.
"Hiding only delays the inevitable…"