I'd intended to do this a little closer to Halloween, but life got in the way when I was half way through and I only just got a chance to finish it. And yes, I realize that the timeline doesn't completely line up with the last chapter, but I'll sort that out later :D Let's just say that around these people odd things sometimes happen...
Anyway, have some wordz.
Amy looked up from where she was helping Taylor carve a pumpkin into an oddly happy-looking demonic face, next to Emma and Vicky who were working on their own. This one had started out with the intention of being a frowny thing, but somehow had ended up looking more drunk than anything, and with an expression that suggested it might burst into song at any moment. What had caught her attention was the sound of the front door opening, a familiar voice sounding moments later.
"Granny Mallie's here!" she said with a broad smile, dropping the plastic knife she'd been using to etch eyebrows onto their work of art. Taylor nodded, her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth in concentration and Thuley sitting on her head, as she carefully poked the corner of the pumpkin's mouth with a spoon, shaping it a little more, then leaned back.
"Done." She grinned proudly at the thing. "Doesn't he look amazing?"
"Very scary indeed, my child," Granny Mallie said approvingly as she appeared in the door of the kitchen and looked at them all, smiling a little, with Mom and Dad following her in. "And yours also appears to be coming along well," she added, inspecting Emma and Vicky's effort as the other two girls put the finishing touches on it. "Albeit possibly less scary than… inebriated? Certainly merry, I would be forced to say." She looked amused as Vicky and Emma exchanged a glance then nodded at the same time.
"Their one isn't as good as our one," Taylor commented with a grin. "Ours is really cool."
"Hey, this guy is neat too," Vicky protested, putting a proprietary hand on their pumpkin. "He's just a little too happy." Emma giggled, leaning close to the pumpkin and smiling at it.
"I like him," she put in. "But he needs a candle inside him."
"Ooh! Ooh! I can light it!" Vicky waved her hand excitedly. All three of the other girls exchanged dubious glances.
"We don't want to explode the poor guy yet," Taylor pointed out. "We do that afterwards before they get all soggy."
Granny Mallie looked at Mom and Dad, her mouth twitching slightly. Both parents seemed amused. "I believe we can come up with something more suitable than a mere candle, girls, and also forestall a messy fate for our brave vegetables," she said with a serene look. They all watched with interest as she put a finger on the pumpkin Taylor and Amy had been working on. "Like so."
A mild sensation of eldritch energy swept through the room, followed by a green illumination appearing inside the carved pumpkin, spilling out through the mouth and eye holes and casting a surreal glow across the table. Dad turned out the light, dimming the kitchen a lot as it was early evening outside. All of them studied the effect for a moment.
"Cooool," all the pre-teens breathed almost as one.
"That might be a little ominous, Mal," Dad remarked, shaking his head.
"Nonsense, Danny. It adds the requisite atmosphere to the proceedings, in my view," Mal replied calmly but with a little smile. "I am sure that anyone who sees the end result will be quite taken by it."
"Or just run," he muttered, causing Mom to nudge him with a grin.
Taylor was peering into the eyes of the eerily glowing pumpkin lantern with a huge smile on her face, and Amy was leaning on her elbows with her head propped on her hands admiring it too. "That is so cool, Granny Mallie," Taylor said with great admiration. "I can see right inside and it looks amazing." Mal put her hand on the Taylor's head and stroked her hair.
"I am most pleased it meets with your approval, Taylor," she replied.
"Thuley thinks it's neat too," the girl added happily, hugging her doll, the yellow eyes reflecting the green glow in an eerie manner that looked almost alive.
"Do ours! Do ours!" Emma squealed with excitement. Mal smiled and repeated the process, this time producing a deep red glow that shone on the opposite wall and cast shadows around the room, which seemed to move in a manner not entirely connected to the motions of the occupants. Emma and Vicky stared, exchanged gazes, then grinned.
"Wow," the blonde girl exclaimed. "That's even better! He looks really dangerous now but still sort of happy..."
"Oh for..." Danny sighed a little with a mild sense of foreboding, but shrugged. "Fine. Evil pumpkins on the porch. It wouldn't be the first time."
"Hardly evil my dear boy," Mal said without rancor as she looked at him. "They are simply displaying greater character than a more mundane approach would allow."
"That's one way to look at it, I suppose," he allowed.
"Well, I think they both look very nice," Annette commented as she moved to put the kettle on, then opened the fridge and got out a bottle of apple juice. She poured four glasses full and handed them out to the girls who were still admiring their pumpkins. Taylor's grin was nearly as creepy as her pumpkin's was, and Amy was fixated on the orange gourd with a look of fascination. She glanced at her mother, who smiled momentarily. "And they will certainly add to the ambience."
"I can't deny that," he responded, shaking his head.
"They're fine, dear." Annette looked over her shoulder as she prepared the tea. "Just the thing for Samhain Eve."
Going over to her he put his arms around her waist, the girls and Mal watching with smiled, and kissed the side of her head. "You're as bad as she is," he replied in a low voice. She laughed, pouring boiling water into the teapot.
"And so are you, as you well know, Danny," she remarked impishly. "You just do it differently."
He grinned, letting go of her and reaching for the tray as she put everything on it. "I've had my moments, I'll admit," he said with a placid nod. Turning to Mal, he nodded towards the living room. "Shall we?"
"Of course. Thank you," the older woman replied, looking calmly pleased. "Girls, excellent work. If you feel like finishing another one, I will happily add character to that as well."
Amy and Taylor looked at each other, then at the other two, before all four of them zipped over to the back door where one last pumpkin was sitting, a quite large but somewhat lopsided one that seemed a little sad. "This one is kind of droopy," Emma pointed out doubtfully.
Taylor waved her hands enthusiastically. "We can fix it. Come on, let's get started." She and Amy heaved it onto the table, while Vicky carefully moved the eerie green-glowing one to sit beside the red-lit jack'o'lantern. Soon all of them were good-naturedly arguing over what the third carving should be. Mal watched for a moment, smiled, and left the room after her daughter and son-in-law.
"Hey, let's ask Bob what he thinks this guy should look like!"
A storm of small feet rumbled up the stairs, followed by the crash of a door opening rather too hard. "Hey, Bob?"
The adults looked at the ceiling as the voices went quieter, then at each other. "I'm almost afraid to think what they'll come up with," Annette said with a small smile.
"Undoubtedly something unusual, but then the imagination of the young is a marvelous and unexpected thing," Mal replied as she sat down, then accepted the cup of tea that Danny handed her. "Thank you, Danny," she added, putting the saucer down on the small table next to her chair.
Shortly all of them had drinks, and Annette passed around a plate of cookies she'd baked. Settling back, she asked, "What brings you here, Mother?"
"Can I not be simply visiting family, especially on a day like today?" the older woman responded, smiling a little, then taking a sip of tea.
"You're of course always welcome, and the girls love having you here," Danny said. "I'm quite fond of you myself for that matter."
She smiled a little more widely at him while Annette giggled. "Most gratifying to know, I am sure."
He nodded in a dignified manner, making her shake her head in amusement. "However, you are correct that I had another reason to drop by. I find that I have need of your own talents for a… somewhat annoying task."
Danny sipped his tea, watching her over the cup, then put it down very carefully in the saucer which he leaned forward to replace on the coffee table. "Ah. I presume we are not discussing my skills in personnel management?"
She looked somewhat amused again. "In a sense that would not be entirely wrong, but no, I require a rather different aspect."
He nodded slowly, glancing at Annette, who was listening quietly. She met his eyes and blinked a couple of times. "I see. When?"
"I believe midnight would be not only traditional but appropriate," Mal replied, raising a cookie to her mouth and taking a bite.
Nodding, Danny picked up his teacup again. "Fair enough. The usual method?"
"Possibly even a little more… memorable… than usual." Mal shook her head slightly. "A certain impression needs to be left. To forestall such problems in the future, you understand, and to instill a level of respect that is sadly missing in this specific case."
"I do understand, yes." He nodded. "It would be my pleasure."
"Thank you."
"I'll call the boys later, they'll be up for a little exercise. We haven't done that for a while." Danny smiled in a somewhat dangerous manner as Mal looked approving.
"The old ways are not used as much as they were but I believe they still have a place," she agreed with an expression of satisfaction.
They discussed the problem for a little longer, then moved on to other subjects.
All four girls looked at each other from where they were lying packed around the heating vent in Taylor's bedroom, Thuley sandwiched between Amy and Taylor. "Oooh, someone's been very naughty," Taylor said quietly.
"Dad's going to sort them out," Amy added, nodding approvingly. Emma smirked in a slightly evil way and Vicky shook her head.
"Sucks to be them," she commented wisely.
The quartet nodded as one.
Then they swiveled around and looked at the dark space under the bed. "Stop laughing like that, Bob, it's undignified," Taylor ordered firmly, pointing at the gap. She held the pose for a second then started giggling, as did the others. They got up and jumped onto the bed, Taylor grabbing a pad of paper and a pencil. "Come on, we need to figure out what our third guy is going to look like," she went on, sticking the end of the pencil in her mouth and frowning thoughtfully at the blank paper. She looked at Thuley who she'd put next to her, then shrugged a little.
"No, we're not trying to carve your face on the poor guy, Bob," she said a moment later, while Amy leaned over the side of the bed and peered under it, laughing. "We don't have room for all the teeth."
The arguing went on for quite a while, but eventually they were back downstairs hard at work on their latest masterpiece.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Standing at the end of the path that led up to the front door of the next house, Dennis stared at the three jack'o'lanterns that were grinning at him from the porch. He inspected each in turn, wondering how the weird colors coming from inside were made. Normally people used candles, but maybe these were electric lights?
He pulled on his mom's hand, wanting to have a closer look. Anyone who could make that sort of Halloween decoration probably had good candy. "Come on, Mom," he insisted with all his eight year old force. "Don't just stand there!"
After several seconds, his mother seemed to shake her head a little and trailed after him as he ran up the path, stopping to admire the pumpkins from close range. One was a really weird green that seemed to light up the snow without leaving shadows, one a dark red that he could swear was producing shadows where there shouldn't have been anything, and one a bright blue that was oddly hard to focus on. The green one was smirking demonically, the red one seemed strangely happy like it knew something he didn't, and the blue one…
He studied it with his head on one side. It looked more like a really smug lizard than anything else, he decided.
Waving at it, he turned back to the door and pushed the doorbell as his mother arrived behind him, then quickly whipped his head back to suspiciously inspect the last pumpkin. He could have sworn it winked at him…
The creaking sound of the door opening attracted his attention and he turned to see an older woman smiling down at him. "Hello, young one," she said in a voice that sounded pleased. "And what are you supposed to be?"
"I'm a superhero!" he chirped, grinning through his mask. It had taken him hours to make, and he was very pleased with the result. His mom had helped with the rest of the costume but the mask was all him.
"Ah. I see. Let me guess..." She tapped her cheek with one finger as he posed. "You are, if I'm not mistaken, the Great and Powerful Legend?"
"Yep!" He grinned even more widely.
"An excellent role model, I must say," she replied with a nod. "And a most impressive costume. I believe that deserves an extra treat." Reaching inside the door, she produced a large bowl full of colorful candy bars and held it out. "Please help yourself to what you desire."
Grabbing a couple of bars he liked, he looked up at her, then when she nodded, took another one. "Thanks," he said brightly.
"Thank you, Dennis," the woman replied gravely, putting the bowl away. "It is most delightful to meet such a polite young man. It will stand you in good stead in your future superhero career, I suspect." She leaned down a little and winked. "Your sense of humor may cause you minor trouble though so I would suggest at least attempting to reign yourself in."
Straightening up as he puzzled over her words, she nodded to his mother who was listening with a small smile. "I hope you enjoy the evening," she added.
"Thank you," his mom replied, gently urging Dennis towards the street. He followed, hearing the door close again behind them. When he glanced over his shoulder he wondered if those pumpkins really had moved a little to watch them go.
Just to be on the safe side he waved at them, before they headed for the next house.
It wasn't until they were at the end of the block that he wondered how that old woman had known his name…
Annette looked up as her mother came back into the living room and retook her seat, picking up the plate next to it which had a slice of lemon cake on. "Having fun, mother?" she asked with a tiny grin.
Mal nodded, looking rather pleased with herself. "Indeed I am. I do so enjoy the wide-eyed excitement of children," she replied with satisfaction.
"Try not to freak them out too much," Annette said although she was still smiling.
"I am sure I can restrain myself," Mal assured her.
"Hmm..." The younger woman shook her head, before going back to writing in the notebook she was holding. "I hope that Danny and the girls are having fun too."
"Of that I have no doubt whatsoever," Mal chuckled. "Young Taylor could find enjoyment in the most pedestrian of activities and Amelia is equally capable in that respect, as I believe Emma is as well. Never mind Victoria, of course, who is likely to make entertainment should it not arrive with all due alacrity..."
Annette sighed faintly, although fondly. "That's rather what I'm worried about a lot of the time," she said. "Their lessons are… sometimes a little too exciting."
"The enthusiasm of youth is one of the more amusing things one can witness," her mother responded, before taking a forkful of the cake. "As we discovered on numerous occasions during your childhood."
She laughed quietly as Annette flushed just a little, giving her a severe look. Then they both lapsed into a contented silence, waiting for the doorbell to ring again.
"Thanks, Dad." Amy hugged Danny as he knelt down, the girl looking cold but very happy. Taylor did the same thing, her face not as red but mostly just pleased. "That was so much fun." She pulled the head of her costume fully off, a grin appearing from under the neatly made cat eared creation. "And we got lots of candy!"
Taylor looked at the bag she was holding which was stuffed with all manner of things that weren't really nutritionally ideal, appearing very satisfied. "Bob will be happy," she chirped, holding up a peanut brittle bar. "He loves these."
"Try to get him not to leave the wrappers everywhere this time, Taylor," Annette said as she came out of the living room, Mal standing behind her and observing with a small smile.
"OK, Mom," Taylor nodded as Amy took her coat off, Danny accepting it to shake off the light snow that had started falling as they were on the way back, then hanging it up.
"All of you go in the living room, we've got hot chocolate to warm you up," Annette continued, waving them towards the other room. "You two as well, Emma and Vicky. You look cold."
"It's pretty snowy out there, Aunt Annette," Emma agreed as she followed the other three into the living room. Vicky nodded, her teeth chattering a little, and pulled the wool hat on her head down over her ears.
"It was way too cold," the blonde complained.
"But you had fun even so?" Mal asked, taking a seat again. Vicky grinned.
"Oh, yeah, it was great! But I wish it was in summer. Halloween is at the wrong time of year." Mal smiled with distinct amusement as the girl hopped up on the sofa next to Emma and Amy, Taylor flopping down onto the floor on her stomach and starting to rummage around in the bag she'd brought in.
"I'm afraid that moving the holiday to a warmer time of year would present a number of problems," the older woman chuckled tolerantly, making Vicky sigh but nod.
"Yeah, I guess so..."
Emma handed her a chocolate bar, which made her immediately brighten up and Danny smile. "Did a lot of kids come here too? There were lots of people outside," the red-headed girl asked as she gave Amy one too, then took one for herself.
"We had quite a number, yes," Annette replied as she came back into the living room carrying a tray full of mugs. She put it down on the table and started handing them out, along with a bowl of tiny marshmallows which quickly found themselves in everyone's hot chocolate, even Mal's. "Mother seemed to enjoy giving out the candy."
"I found it well worth the minor effort," her mother said, smiling then taking a sip from her mug. "And this is truly excellent."
"Everyone approved of your pumpkins too, girls," Annette commented as she sat next to Danny who put his free arm around her shoulders.
Taylor had rolled over onto her back and moved to sit against her mother's legs, putting Thuley on her lap and cuddling him. The girl looked at her sister and friends, smiling widely. "I told you they would. Those guys are great."
"Yeah," Amy nodded, Emma and Vicky doing likewise.
"I wonder how long they'll last?" Emma remarked after a moment.
"Long enough. Then we can let Vicky light them up." Taylor gestured with both hands, nearly slopping hot chocolate onto the carpet. "Whoosh!"
She, Amy, and Emma burst out into giggles while Vicky looked momentarily annoyed, although the girl quickly started laughing too. Mal glanced at Annette, who grinned, and Danny, who sighed faintly. "I take it the lessons have been successful?"
"To a point," he replied, shaking his head ruefully. His wife nudged him in the ribs, making him smirk a bit.
"They're coming along very well, Mother. Vicky merely has a minor control problem. She'll get over it."
"She sure doesn't have any problems actually doing it, only making it not go wrong," Amy giggled.
Vicky poked her in the ribs. Amy poked back. After a short struggle both subsided when Emma rolled her eyes and gave each another candy bar.
"Hey, Dad?" Taylor said a while later after they'd all sat there enjoying the warmth of the hot chocolate, having had refills all around.
"Yes, Taylor?" he replied, looking down at her. She was staring thoughtfully at the candle Annette had left burning on the table next to the tray, filling the room with a slight scent of sandalwood.
"You said that violence is the last resort, right?"
He exchanged a glance with his wife, then nodded as he returned his attention to his daughter. The other girls were listening curiously, and Mal was watching them with interest. "Generally, yes, it's better to talk if at all possible. Or walk away."
She nodded slowly.
"But sometimes you have no choice?"
"At times, that's true, dear."
"An Example must be made," she said, with a certain emphasis.
He sighed inaudibly, meeting Mal's eyes and finding hers glittering with hidden understanding. "Yes. Sometimes it goes too far and you have to act in a way that you'd prefer not to. And sometimes you have to do something to stop something worse happening." He stroked her hair gently as she kept looking at the candle flame. Amy leaned on his other side, Emma and Vicky under a blanket at the far end of the sofa listening.
"Like with Jim," she responded after a few seconds with a firm nod. "Some monsters need their kneecaps broken with a bat."
Mal made a sound that was very close to a cut-off laugh, causing Annette to grin momentarily and Danny to shake his head fondly. "Some monsters do in the end need you to do something about them," he agreed quietly, looking at his mother in law for a couple of seconds. She nodded just a little. "But even so, that's the sort of thing you need to try other solutions for first if you can."
"Because resorting to violence is the last resort," Taylor said wisely, looking down at Thuley and bending over him. There was a faint whisper, then she straightened up. "Thuley agrees. He thinks that you need to make sure to resort to enough violence that you only need to do it once, though."
Amy giggled for a moment, causing Taylor to look at her, then toss the doll at her. Her sister grabbed Thuley and hugged him. Emma and Vicky exchanged looks, before both shuffling closer and snuggling up to the shorter girl. Taylor yawned, leaning back on Danny's legs as he shifted to make her more comfortable. "Thanks, Dad," she said quietly.
He stroked her hair again. "You're welcome, Taylor." Looking at Annette, he shrugged a little. She smiled, then also leaned on him. Mal watched them all fondly, before pouring the last of the hot chocolate into her mug and tapping the thing, then sipping the steaming drink with an expression of serene contentment.
Later that night, Taylor's eyes opened in the dark. She looked to one side, seeing Amy asleep next to her, then the other way to look at both Emma and Vicky who were in sleeping bags on the floor of her room. She smiled to herself, feeling that it had been a really good day. It was nice having the other two over for a sleepover, they had more candy than they could eat in a week, the costumes had been neat, and they'd made some very cool pumpkins. And tomorrow Granny Mallie was going to show them some even more fun things, according to Mom.
Yes, she was very contented and felt that things were perfect.
Rolling over slightly, she looked at her cupboard, the door of which was slightly ajar. "Don't you dare, Jim, it's not funny, I'm tired," she whispered.
The door very quietly closed.
Taylor smiled a little, closed her eyes, and fell asleep again, hearing just at the threshold of audibility Dad and Granny Mallie talking downstairs. Moments later the front door closed and all was still once more.
The four men who had just come out of a particular building in the business district of Brockton Bay headed towards the limo parked at the curb nearby. Behind them, the sound of a lot of people engaged in various activities that seemed to involve quite a bit of shouting and more than a few racially charged slurs was cut off as the steel door swung shut. "A good turnout tonight," the younger of the lead pair commented almost idly.
"Yes, although we're still rebuilding, and I suspect we're going to have problems soon enough for a number of reasons," the older one, who bore a family resemblance to the first man, replied irritably. "Marquis may be gone, but he caused enormous damage to us. And the chaos of what happened is still an issue, of course. Plus we can't afford to have the PRT poking around while we're dealing with internal matters."
"We'll overcome those minor problems easily enough," the first man said confidently. Behind him, the other pair were following silently, looking around them constantly. One could, if one had the right training or experience, recognize that they were clearly heavily armed.
The older man stopped, causing the rest to come to a halt too. He turned and fixed the first one with a glare. "Overconfidence will get you killed, Max," he snapped. "Yes, Marquis is gone, and yes, we have resources that most don't, but never assume victory until you actually achieve it. More people than you'd believe have fallen just before the finishing line because they got careless."
"I am well aware of such possibilities, Dad," Max replied calmly. "But I am also aware of our power, and the possibilities the vacuum of Marquis being removed has left, even after this amount of time. We can still take advantage of that."
His father inspected him, then let out a slight snort before resuming walking. "Your sister thought the same..."
Max scowled. "My sister was careless. I am not."
"See that you aren't," his father responded somewhat irritably. "I've put far too much into our organization to allow anyone, even you, to screw it up now."
Sighing a little, but very quietly, Max didn't reply. They arrived at the limo and one of the bodyguards pulled out the keys, pressing the unlock button on the fob. The limo chirped, the doors unlocked, then immediately relocked with another chirp.
"What the..." The driver muttered to himself, trying again. Exactly the same thing happened.
Max's father looked at the man, who flushed. "Sorry, sir, must be a low battery or something." He put the manual key in the lock and turned it. Absolutely nothing useful happened as he tugged fruitlessly on the door handle. "Shit."
"Someone maybe fucked with it?" the other guard said, looking around suspiciously.
"No footprints in the snow other than ours," the driver pointed out, making Max and his father also look. "And no signs it's been disturbed."
Sighing heavily, Max's father pulled out a phone, prodded the screen, and held it to his ear. Then he frowned. "Engaged."
"It's only three blocks, we can walk it faster than waiting for another car," Max pointed out.
His dad swore under his breath, looked around, as did the two other men, then kicked the car. "Get this thing replaced tomorrow," he ordered as he put his phone away and started walking towards the tallest building in the area, about two and a half kilometers away and visible past the other structures due to the red-lit aircraft warning beacon on the top. "Fucking unreliable piece of shit cars..." he muttered. Max walked next to him, the guards following.
They rounded the corner of the street and proceeded down the next one, Max silent and his father still grumbling quietly. The older man had quite a temper and really didn't like things not going his way. As they walked, Max looked around as well, and after a few hundred meters he frowned a little.
"That's weird," he muttered.
His father looked at him.
"What is?" he asked rather abruptly.
Stopping, Max turned in a complete circle, then waved a hand. "I don't recognize this street."
"This is West Atlantic Drive," his father replied, giving him a look. "Do you need a map?"
Max returned the look. "Are you sure?" he said slowly.
"Of course I'm fucking sur..." His father looked around and his voice faded even as his eyes widened a little.
"Yeah. See?"
Turning on the spot as had his son seconds earlier, the older man stared around him. "What in god's name…?" he finally said. Both guards were also looking very uneasily around, now holding large pistols in their hands.
"This isn't where we're supposed to be," Max commented.
"Really, you idiot?" his father snarled sarcastically as he studied the surroundings. "I can't see the tower either. Shaker effect? Or did we get teleported somewhere or something?"
"I didn't feel anything," the driver said, sounding confused. "Or see anything. But this isn't West Atlantic."
"I'm not sure it's even Brockton," the other guard put in with a worried look.
Max's father shook his head. Pointing at the ground, he said, "Our footprints are right there. We'll follow them back to the car, then figure out who's fucking with us and why. Then make sure they don't do it again. Ever."
Stomping back the way they'd come, he headed towards the corner they'd walked around only minutes before. Max and the guards looked at each other then followed.
"FUCK!" The scream of rage made Max twitch and nearly caused the driver to fire his gun. They ran after the older man to find him just around the corner, on a street that notable did not have the limo parked on it. Nor did it have any footprints in the snow.
And when Max looked around, he saw that the architecture wasn't right at all, while the streetlights didn't seem to actually be anything like what he was used to aside from the actual illumination aspect. Staring at one, he wondered how they'd missed that the lights had white flames burning inside rather than bulbs…
"Someone is attacking us," his father announced, looking around suspiciously. "Somehow." Pulling out his phone again he checked the screen, then snarled under his breath. "No signal at all."
"Maybe if we go back to where the car was there's some way back to where we should be?" the non-driver guard suggested, his voice a little unsteady.
"Might be worth a try, Dad," Max said, shrugging. "I can't see or hear anyone around. It's like this is a ghost town. It could just be some sort of illusion and we can find the edge of it."
"God damn it," his father growled, putting his phone back in his coat and pointing at the driver. "You, go in front. Anyone you see, shoot the fucker. You, keep watch at the back." He pointed at the other guard, who nodded. "Max, keep your eyes open."
They slowly set off, all four heads swiveling constantly.
Eventually, Max said, "It was around here, right?"
Everyone stopped and looked around. "I can't recognize anything," his father said with anger in his voice. "I think it was here."
"We walked about the right distance," the driver put in.
"Um… sir?"
The others looked at the second guard, who pointed behind them. Everyone turned to look.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Max's father roared. "Now what?"
The road they'd just walked down was, again, different. This time it wasn't even in a city as such, instead it seemed to head down a tree-lined cobblestone path that vanished around a bend into a forest. Snow was filtering down from above, laying on the ground in a vista than under normal circumstances would be quite nice to look at.
These were very much not normal circumstances, though, and as such none of them really appreciated the view.
"Whatever did this is still doing it," Max pointed out unnecessarily, and causing his father to glare at him.
"No shit, Sherlock," he gritted. "Got something helpful to add?"
The older man's hands were clenching and relaxing in a way that suggested he wanted to meet whoever was responsible for this current problem and shake them warmly by the throat in appreciation. Max was very aware of his father's temper, having been on the receiving end of it more than once as a child, and decided that keeping quiet might be the best approach right now.
Not to mention he was getting worried. They were cut off from any backup, during what was clearly a Parahuman attack of some sort, although he didn't have the faintest idea who was behind it or how they were doing it. Someone who wasn't properly respectful of who they were inconveniencing, certainly, either due to not understanding the opponent's strength or more worryingly not caring about it.
The really weird part, he thought as he looked around, was how there was absolutely no sign of anyone trying to capitalize on whatever they'd done. The entire scene was completely quiet, to the point the hiss of snow falling through the trees was clearly audible. But that was it; not a single sound that betrayed anyone other than the four of them could be heard, there were no footprints or any other marks in the snow past about ten meters back from where they stood, the buildings behind them were totally dark and silent…
Even as he thought that, he heard a faint, sharp snap! sound and whipped around, as did the others, to stare down the tree-lined path into the forest.
"What was that?" one of the guards, he wasn't sure which one, whispered.
"I don't know," he replied as quietly, trying to make out anything. Was that movement far off in the gloom? "Maybe an animal?"
"Or the enemy setting up an attack," his father said darkly, holding out his right hand in which a steel sword materialized. "Get your armor on and get ready."
Max turned to him, but nodded and moments later he was covered in metal armor from nowhere, taking on his Parahuman persona Kaiser. Both guards were holding their guns in both hands, carefully panning them around looking for a target. They stood in a group, listening hard and peering around, but only the susurrus of the snow falling could be heard.
Several minutes passed with the tension building, until another snap! came in the distance, making them all twitch and whirl to face that direction. Both guards fired as one, the double gunshot deafening Max and echoing around the trees for a moment until it died away.
"Fuck!" he yelled, shaking his head. "Fucking warn me before you do that, idiots!" His ears were ringing inside his helmet.
"Sorry, sir," the driver said, the other one still gazing suspiciously in the distance the sound had come from.
"Did you hit anything?" Max's father queried, also looking hard.
"Dunno," the other guard grunted, his weapon pointing down the tree-lined road. "Thought I saw movement but I can't see anything now."
"I can't see anything at all," Max grumbled. "Dark as shit now..." He trailed off, realized rather nastily that yes, it was darker. Darker than it had been before the last sound…
He looked over his shoulder to see that the unknown city street that had been behind them, along with the entire city, had completely vanished. All that was there was an extension of the same tree-lined road, although this time there was only beaten earth and the trees weren't neatly planted like a causeway, they were just a forest full of enormous ancient growths that were obviously centuries if not millennia old. "Oh hell," he moaned, the uneasy feeling of danger that had been present for some time now growing much, much stronger.
He didn't have the slightest idea who was behind this but whoever it was, they were really laying on the psyops, he dimly thought as he looked around quickly. His father and the guards had also turned at his exclamation and now the older man was continuously swearing under his breath while the guards were sweating despite the temperature.
"When I find out who's doing this I am going to skin them," his dad said in an extremely dangerous voice.
Max got a nasty feeling and looked back over his shoulder yet again. He then closed his eyes, sighing. "It happened again," he mumbled. The others looked. Sure enough, the scenery had changed once more, the cobbles vanishing and the road narrowing to pretty much just a cart track through a dark forest, the path winding out of sight through the trees that dwarfed most buildings and stretched a good hundred meters above them into the snow-filled sky. He peered upwards, seeing a full moon coming and going as clouds scudded past, while large flakes dropped near-silently out of the night towards them.
Lowering his gaze he looked around, not really surprised to see that in both directions now the scene was exactly the same, having apparently decided to settle down into a track through a woodland that Red Riding Hood herself would have had second thoughts about entering. It raised tiny hairs on the back of his neck, like something, possibly many somethings, were watching them from all around.
And disapproving of their presence.
"What do we do, Sir?" the driver asked, his voice unsteady.
Max's father opened his mouth to reply, but snapped it shut when someone who wasn't them said, "Good evening, Richard Anders. Or would you prefer Allfather?"
The woman sounded completely calm and slightly amused, Max thought as he saw his father's face pale in the moonlight, which was bright enough to show the scenery but not really good enough to let them make out much more than shapes.
"You," Richard hissed as he slowly turned to look in the direction the voice had come from. The others did the same.
"Me. Yes, Richard." She smiled at him, in a way that was both polite and somehow one of the single most blood-freezingly horrifying sights Max had ever encountered. "I am afraid that this will be our final meeting." The woman was tall, dark haired, elegant, looking like she was possibly an extremely well preserved sixty or so, and somehow simultaneously made Max's skin crawl. He couldn't shake the sensation that something very, very dangerous was smiling thinly at them. "We had a bargain, Richard. One which you have not upheld at your end. You have been warned, yet still you persist. In times gone by I would already have acted but the world is not as it was when I was younger, for good or ill. That, for you, has been quite fortuitous but I regret to say that your luck has run out."
Max's father was staring at the woman with an expression that Max had never seen on him before. His mouth worked and Max distinctly heard him swallow. He seemed to reach deep inside himself after a few seconds thought and visibly pulled himself together. "Shoot her," he ordered harshly and loudly.
Both guards, who had been pointing their guns at her even though Max could easily see their hands shaking a little, reflexively fired at his command. The flat cracks seemed to damp out almost immediately as the forest absorbed the noise, while smoke surrounded them in the cold air. Eight or nine rounds from each went downrange before they stopped shooting.
The woman smiled a little unpleasantly, then held up a hand and opened it, tipping it to allow a number of coppery slugs to patter to the ground, vanishing into the snow at her feet. "Regrettably that will not help. A valiant attempt though."
"Cold iron," Richard muttered under his breath, making Max look at him, tearing his gaze away from whatever it was that was watching them from fifteen meters away and making him feel like his death was seconds away. "I looked up the old legends. Cold iron is your weakness." He gestured, and a dozen huge blades appeared around him from nowhere, one nearly skewering the driver who yelped and dived to the side, dropping his weapon which he'd been frantically reloading with shaking hands. The blades shot towards the woman like rockets, and…
Stopped.
They just hung there in the air, all aimed at her head, half a meter from her.
Everyone gaped as she smiled maliciously, reaching out to tap the needle-sharp tip of one with a long finger. "Oh, Richard… The old stories do indeed have a kernel of truth to them, but you cannot believe all you read." She gestured and the hovering blades parted like mist, then dropped to the ground. "Especially when they are that old. Much has been written that is at best guesswork and at worst..." Her smile widened a little. "At worst you have to consider who wrote it." She tapped her chin thoughtfully as she regarded them. "And why, of course."
No one said anything for a few seconds. Max contemplated trying to use his own power on her, but he was at a severe disadvantage. He required a metal surface to grow his blades from and there was no metal around other than his armor, and those swords on the ground next to her… which he realized had quietly vanished.
Oh, shit.
"What do you want, Mal?" his father grated, holding the sword he'd produced in a tight grip. "I can pay you anything you ask for, just end this."
"Unfortunately your debt to me cannot be satisfied by any resources you have, Richard," Mal replied evenly as she took a couple of steps closer, the two guards moving back at the same time and even Max retreating a pace. "The time for such things is truly long gone, as you well know. The warnings should have been sufficient after all. Now..." She shook her head a tiny amount. "Now we finish it the old way."
"What… do you mean?" Richard said warily, looking around then back to her, even as the others did the same.
Her smile grew, and her eyes seemed to faintly glow. Max became aware that behind her, a dim glimmer was illuminating the path from somewhere far down the unseen twists and turns. Right at the threshold of hearing he thought he could hear an oddly familiar thumping sound, along with…
"Can you hear dogs barking?" the driver whispered, his eyes fixed on the same glow, which was steadily brightening.
"Is that… hooves?" the other guard replied, sounding like he was only barely avoiding passing out from terror.
All of them looked back to Mal. Or rather, where she'd been. There was no sign of her, not even footprints in the snow.
"Run, little humans, run for your lives," her voice whispered from somewhere around them. "The Hunt rides tonight. Run and perhaps you might live." The horrible voice trailed off into silence, only broken by the distant drumming of hooves and the howling of something canine, which getting closer. The eldritch glow far off down the tree-lined path strengthened and Max thought he could barely make out something large come around a corner way off at the limit of vision. Something that seemed to have antlers.
"Oh Christ," he said faintly, his heartbeat hammering in his ears. He looked wildly at his father, who was gaping, his face pallid and the sword in his hands drooping with his visible fear. "Dad! Fucking run!"
Richard Anders dropped the sword, turned, and bolted down the path, the other three following at his heels, while the baying of something that might or might not have been huge dogs got louder and louder, hoof-beats thundering towards them. One of the guards tripped, fell face first into the snow, yelled in terror, jumped to his feet again, and dashed sideways into the trees. He vanished instantly and seconds later there was a triumphant howl from nothing human accompanied by a horrendous scream. Max nearly passed out, but having dismissed his armor to lighten the load accelerated as hard as he could, running like his life depended on it.
The three remaining members of their little group pelted down the dark and slippery pathway, only the moon above them illuminating their way and reflecting off the snow. Panting for breath and certain that if they stopped it would be the end of them, they ran on, disappearing around the first bend in the track just as dozens of legs churned the ground where they'd spoken to Mal into mud then followed the trail.
A horn sounded, ringing out through the trees, the noise conveying eagerness, voices calling out in a language that had been old when neanderthals hid in caves and shivered, then the Hunt passed by, silence slowly falling. The eerie glow disappeared after the three men and snow began almost noiselessly covering all traces of what had happened. Soon there was no sign that anyone had ever been there.
Far above, if anyone had been there to look, a winged shape glided through the night. Glowing eyes expressed amusement.
Then it was gone.
In Boston, in a bar, behind a glass full of something extremely alcoholic, an early middle aged man with a beard cocked his head slightly like he was listening to something far away. After a moment he shivered, tossed the shot back, and poured himself another one from the bottle. The bartender watched him, muttered something under his breath, and turned to the next customer.
The tall girl winked at him as she picked up the small package he'd handed her, accepted her change, and left with a final glance at Myrrdin, one that was both lightly amused and rather sympathetic.
"Poor bastard," the drinking man mumbled, raising a glass in a toast to someone he hated with a passion, then swigging it.
Sighing quietly, the barman shook his head and picked up the book he'd been reading.
"Hi, Dad!" Taylor chirped, skipping down the back porch steps with Amy following, rubbing her eyes sleepily. "Hi, Binky!"
The enormous stag snorted at her, poking her head with his muzzle and making her grin. She patted him, watching as Danny finished cleaning up, then patted the creature fondly.
"Thanks, old friend," he said quietly. The deer tossed his head, snorted again, then trotted off towards the back of the garden through the grass, before disappearing into the trees there. Amy and Taylor exchanged looks then went to chase the butterflies, shortly being joined by Vicky and Emma. Sitting on the porch Danny watched with a smile, only looking up when Mal sat next to him.
"A good job well done," the older woman commented idly.
"Thanks. Been a while."
"With luck it will be some time before I call upon you again."
"Nah, it's no problem, not for you, Mal. The boys enjoyed themselves too."
"My gratitude to the boys, then." She smiled sidelong at him as he chuckled. Then she sniffed. "Ah. I believe that Annette may well be preparing breakfast."
"I could eat," he replied as he stood, offering her a hand which she accepted. "Been a long night."
"Indeed."
They went back inside, the girls rushing after them as Annette called out.
Max crawled on hands and knees through the slush, totally exhausted and trembling. Almost insensate, he finally collapsed on his face, bubbling a little as his nose went into a pile of wet muddy snow before he managed to roll over onto his back, the freezing rain that was now falling coating his hair. Heedless of the cold water soaking what was left of his suit he stared up at the streetlights and the barely visible shape of the Medhall building past them.
He was giggling and muttering, "I made it," over and over when the cops almost literally tripped over him a few minutes later. The pair of BBPD patrol officers exchanged bemused glances before one knelt to check on him and the other called for an ambulance and backup.
No one could figure out where the hoof marks in the snow down the alley Max Anders had stumbled out of came from, and the snow melted before anyone thought to follow them.
And no one ever saw Allfather again, of course. Not that anyone was all that upset about this fact.