[Author's Notes] I know it's been a while. My apologies. But only a little. Anyway, please do keep reading, enjoy, and review this, but also check out Knights of Alchemy for a very different story. I'd offer a prize for the first person to guess how we know the characters, or even when it's set, except that I really can't. Anyway, reviews to anything are always welcome. Really very extremely welcome.
Chapter Twelve: All Hail Breaks Loose
Torch looked at the small melted gap in the iron base of the wall with a certain satisfaction. She liked helping the Adepts, wouldn't hear a word against Garet -though she did occasionally make exceptions if it was too long for him to understand- and wouldn't trade it for anything… But it was good to have some destructive power to herself again.
The Djinni squad had crept along the outer wall of Lunpa, on the inside, until they reached a point where it met with a wall of the fortress. This wall had been crafted out of iron, at least for the first foot or so, so Torch had promptly crafted a door in it. It was fortunate that there were no guards on the other side, because then Torch would have also crafted the hell out of them without much hesitation.
"We're doing what?" asked Echo from the back of the group.
"Finding out what's blocking out all our Psynergy and then making it stop," Torch replied absentmindedly, watching for the approach of any Lunpans as the Djinn filed through the wall.
"And we're going to do this how?" asked Echo, who was one of the more difficult Djinn to get along with. He had the opposite of respect for his elders, or perhaps the inverse.
"Echo, m'boy, there is nothing on this planet that can't be melted, frozen, roasted, pulled apart, rusted, eroded, corroded, poisoned, or at least smashed to bits," answered Torch.
Breeze looked at the team Torch led. "Core, Chill, Torch, Vine, Salt, Whorl, Sour, Wheeze, and Echo, I guess," he muttered. "What are Coal and Eddy and I here for, then?"
"Equality and unforeseen contingencies," Torch said. "Now stop asking questions. I'm trying to think."
"It's not going to be easy, but I think it might be worth asking for help," Sour suggested.
"Equality and unforeseen… you mean you got stuck with us because you couldn't think of an excuse to shove us into some other group?" Coal suggested. He wasn't big on the idea of respect for his elders either, which was probably why he got along so well with Echo.
"Well, they must have known the Adepts were coming, otherwise there'd by no reason to even have some kind of Psynergy blocking device… object… thing." This was not met with the round of congratulations Whorl had hoped for. "So," he went on, "it'll probably be deep inside, where no one could hear about it beforehand-"
"Oh, good, we get to burn a trail of destruction," said Core, happily.
"-and," Whorl went on, because he didn't like being interrupted, "it'll be heavily guarded, hidden, and they'll be keeping the Adepts near it, to make sure they don't manage to get any Psynergy back. It'll be close to the dungeons. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if we got weaker as we got closer."
"All right already! Stop taunting me!" Echo snapped.
"I'm just pointing out the reality of the situ-"
"This sounds like the most fun we've had in years and you're still talking! Let's go!" the Venus Djinni went on, but he was stopped by Vine, who could be a serious roadblock when she wanted.
"We're on the inside of the outer wall, not the fortress. Let's get a bit of a distraction going before we charge in or anything," said Vine, one foot keeping the younger Djinni totally immobile. "Wheeze, signal Gale's team."
"Yes ma'am," Wheeze muttered, and rose up.
"I see something," Haze reported, hovering over the top of a tree in the middle of the village. "Looks like a Jupiter Djinni on the other side of the wall… It's Wheeze." The Djinn in the branches below couldn't see him, but they could hear the grin in his tone. "Just threw a bunch of leaves in the air."
"Is that five?" asked Sleet, hopefully.
"Four. All four groups who need us are in position," Sap announced. "Dew has other plans, she doesn't need us."
"We'll see how true that is when all's said and burned to the ground," said Gale, quickly adjusting to the arrogance of leadership. "Let's let those Adept-stealing scum taste some Djinni power!"
"Garet's going to wish he had been here for this," said Fever. He grinned. "It's going to be fun to tell him about it over and over again later." Then he flared red. No one quite understood the difference between Djinni energies and Psynergy. For now, though, Fever didn't care. All he cared about was the expression on the gatekeepers' expressions as he blasted into the arch over the door and huge blocks rained around him, as well as the delusion-inducing smoke that gave Fever his name.
The explosion rippled through the fortress and into the dungeons, where the Adepts looked up at the ceiling in disbelief. "What the heck was that?" demanded Isaac as dust floated down onto them.
It created tremors in the throne room -for there was indeed a throne room- and shook the important occupant, both physically and mentally. Explosions that weren't scheduled were never good.
Ground moved next, launching charges of power that created a gravity well at the broken gates. It was so strong that the stones sunk a little deeper into the earth and a few gargoyles were ripped off the parapets high above, smashing down into an effective barricade, keeping all the reinforcements inside. It was going to be a bad day for the ones outside.
A cluster of soldiers drew their weapons and faced the blasted gate. The most this did was ensure that they didn't see it coming when they were suddenly mugged by a wet snowdrift. Sleet grinned as well as a Mercury Djinni can, and they're good at it.
But then their advantage of surprise was lost. Other soldiers out patrolling the village -there were plenty- saw Sleet's attack, and the strange creature that had caused it. Half lobster, perhaps, and half some other kind of creature, maybe a shellfish sort of thing… no, not really, more like a-
That's as far as they got before being sent sailing through the sky by a truly Gale-force wind, landing safely in some thatch. Well, halfway through some thatch.
"Hey, is that chili?" asked one, his torso hanging over the kitchen table of one house and his legs flailing on the roof. He sniffed deeply. "Mmm. Just like mom's… Um… little help?"
"Private, stop conversing with civilians!"
"But it's lunchtime…"
In truth, the enthatched soldiers had it easier than most. Those at the fortress gate actually managed to stay on guard, and when the Djinn revealed themselves, they were ready. Seeing no better targets at the moment, Gale's little devastating group marched on the fortress.
The first attack was made by a young soldier who hadn't yet learned how unpleasant battle could be. He stabbed at a horned, spiky, somewhat frog-like beast as it approached him, and was glad to see the look of horror on its face as his spear connected.
A gash appeared along the Venus Djinni's side, and all the others paused for a moment in shock. Djinn couldn't truly be harmed, no matter what blade struck them. Not a mark ever showed after the most terrible battles (most of which had been the ones when they met the Adepts), but there was one now. A violet liquid, not especially thick or thin or opaque or transparent but definitely some kind of blood, began to leak from the wound.
The Djinni flew through the air, smashing the soldier across the head with his tail, and from the impact a cloud of lights flew back from the falling Lunpan, mending the injury. "You absolute meathead!" growled Sap, rubbing the former injury with his tail. He looked at the others. "You have no idea how much that hurt."
"This is getting a little scary," Haze dared to suggest.
"Hardly," said Gale. "Look, the rest of the soldiers haven't even moved."
"You're right," Ground agreed. The standing Lunpans began to tremble more obviously as the dozen Djinn faced them. "We might as well take an easy victory while it presents itself."
"For Lunpa!" shouted one of them, and they were spurred to action. The next few moments were complicated, but they ended simply enough. Spritz healed the minor scratches they had gained, all the Lunpan soldiers lay on the grass, some were groaning faintly, and Tinder was standing on one's chest, slapping him back and forth with her foot.
"Not so tough now that things are evened up, are you?" she taunted.
"Tinder, that one's unconscious," Steam pointed out diplomatically.
"Best make sure."
"I don't know why you're so jumpy, Luff," said Gasp. "It's probably just Dodonpa not learning from experience." But the older Djinni ignored his calming words, and continued to move through the dark and dusty stone corridors as though he expected to meet a dragon any moment now.
"Do you really think you're going to get anywhere with him?" asked Squall.
"You know better than that, Squall. You know all about villains standing behind villains," said Luff, darkly.
"Well, yeah, but even when we don't expect the big bad guys, we always handle it," Squall replied, dismissively. "And we're not going to run into demigods around here."
"What on Weyard are you talking about?" asked Mold.
"Old adventures. You don't want to know, kid," Luff insisted.
"Arr!" shouted Hail, and she ignored the sudden chorus of shushing with admirable skill. "There's bound to be treasure ter plunder once the battle's over! If we be needing ter get rid of the former owners first, then have at 'em, but sneaking about in shadows and dust are not fer the likes o' Hail!"
"What the Hail is wrong with her?" asked Spark in a stage whisper, much to the amusement of the Mars Djinn.
"Quiet, all of you!" Luff snarled. "Look, we take care of whoever's behind all of this, their powers break, the army loses its spirit to fight- heck, we might even get our Psynergy back right away. You all know how it goes. So no more complaints. Let's get this done."
The light from the nearest window was blocked for a moment as a small avalanche of battlement rocketed past at high speeds, crackling with Ground's power. Further shouting ensued outside.
"I don't know what kind of bad guys we're facing," said Fizz, "but it's got to be safer than being out there, no matter which side you're on."
"Look, I don't care who's behind all of this, they don't have a chance," Shine insisted. "I don't intend to creep around and hope I don't get spotted by some punk in armor a thousandth my age."
"It'd be stupid to just let them know we're here, Shine!" Rime protested.
"It's a matter of pride. Djinn do not slink."
"Boy's got a point," Luff agreed.
And so the Djinn went on to perform the only stealthy march in the history of the universe, tromping very quietly up and down the dim, window-studded hallways until they found a pair of large wooden doors. This, like most things, including photosynthesis and the passage of time, caused an argument.
"No one puts bloody great doors like that in a hallway if there's nothing but hallway on the other side," said Luff, master of evil overlord psychology.
"Yeah, but it could be anything. It could be the barracks, for all we know," Iron protested.
"Your point?" asked Squall. "Oh defensive one?"
"Arr! It does have an equal chance o' bein' the treasure room! What're we waitin' fer?!" shouted Hail, but this was her normal volume, and no one really noticed.
"I smell food," Rime announced. "I think we've found the kitchen."
"Food! That settles it. This whole hunger idea is way worse than I expected," Shine stated. He began to glow softly, but Forge pointed out that it might be worth just pushing on the doors. It took the strength of a few Djinn, but they did, and the massive portal ground open.
It was the kitchen. And, as has been noted, it was lunchtime. This meant that the barracks were empty, and the dozen Djinn found themselves facing about two hundred Lunpan soldiers. No one, including the Djinn, moved for several seconds. A spoonful of thick stew went glop somewhere in the crowd.
"Any chance of hauling those doors shut again really quickly?" asked Luff out of the corner of his mouth (a feat he managed despite not obviously having a mouth).
"Not likely," Gasp replied.
"Djinn!" yelled a soldier, somewhere in the crowd, and then the stillness was shattered like a nacho anvil. A few of the Lunpans closest to the door took a moment to fling a salvo of daggers before going for heavier weapons.
"Whoa! Yike! AGH! Same to you, pal!" exclaimed Spark, dodging two knives and a whirring meat cleaver. He found that in the next few moments of chaos, which involved a deafening stamping of plated boots and the majority of the Djinn taking off into the depths of the crowd, he ended up back to back with Rime. "You realise what our only use is, right?"
"Drawing away enemy fire?" said Rime, glumly avoiding being stomped by diving under furniture.
Spark looked at him like he had just suggested they go torch Kolima Forest and roast marshmallows over Tret. "Wow, you Mercury Djinn really aren't naturally aggressive, are you? No, we break some heads in a creative way."
"Creative?" Rime repeated.
"Yeah. Right now I'm looking at the mashed potatoes on that table."
"How juvenile," Rime muttered. A sword chopped the chair he was hiding under into bits.
"They can't julienne you if their eyes are full of starch," Spark pointed out.
"To the potatoes!" Rime shouted. "To victory!"
"Close the doors! Don't let them escape!" a soldier called, having backed Shine and Squall into a corner. They glanced at each other.
"Sorry, we think we misheard you," said Shine.
"Who's trying to escape here?" asked Squall. The soldier never got a chance to answer before unconsciousness came for an extended visit, since Shine hurtled into him with a blast of Mars power and a flash that blinded everyone on that side of the large room.
There was a slamming sound as the two heavy doors were thrown back in place, and since there was a battle growing on the other side, no one heard "Oh, thank you so very much" from the other side.
Squall fluttered around just above head height, dodging frenzied attacks that tended to end up landing on another soldier's helmet, dropping the unlucky Lunpan and letting Squall move on freely. It was only when axes started getting involved that she upped the proverbial ante.
Bolts of purple lightning began to stab down from the ceiling, and as each one struck, another Lunpan was removed from the fight. In truth, Squall wasn't sure how much it could be called a fight. 'Fight' sounded so equal, but none of the Djinn had taken so much as a glancing blow yet. And despite what she said, it didn't seem likely to stay that was for long.
A throwing axe whirled through the air in a graceful arc, and Squall didn't even see it coming until it was too late to dodge.
Knew it, she thought, and closed her eyes. With a clink and crackle of energy, the axe rebounded and dropped down into the crowd, who parted eagerly to make way for its fall. Squall looked around in disbelief.
"Remember this next time you make a 'defensiveness' remark," said Iron, sitting safely on a shelf beside a large sack of flour. "Hey, Geode, this way!" Said Venus Djinni was darting between legs at that moment, trying to avoid being turned into the soup of the day, or perhaps a plate of hors d'oeuvres.
Geode ran a full circle around a large soldier and then made for Iron's shelf. He didn't see how he could climb the wall, but apparently there was a way, he just had to see it before they caught up and made use of various sharp implements- whumpf, the world went white, then black.
"I really do disapprove of this," Rime told Spark, matter-of-factly, grinning widely as he blinded another soldier with a ladleful of mashed potatoes. Spark ignored him, instead stunning the disabled fighter with a frying pan. "And what's with the frying pan? That's such a girly weapon."
Squall touched down on the table beside him. She looked at Rime, then at a soldier, who backed up a step before being struck by purple lightning. "No," she corrected the Mercury Djinni, "that's a girly weapon. A frying pan is a domestic weapon."
"Ah," said Rime, weakly, and tried to ignore the smell of crisped hair.
Luff and Forge stood atop the pile of flour, kicking the heck out of any Lunpan who tried to rise out of it. After a few satisfying moments, a dusty white shape rose beside them.
"Goodness me, it's the Venus Djinni of Christmas Past," Luff commented.
"Ha ha," said Geode, not amused. "Where's Iron?"
"Up where it's safe, I'm betting," Forge replied, as Shine blasted through another rank of soldiers on the other side of the room. "You were supposed to keep running, not stand inside the blast radius."
"I didn't know there was going to be a blast radius!"
"Duck!" Forge announced.
"Ooh, I could definitely go for some roast duck," said Luff, and was promptly clobbered with a truncheon. The Lunpan was winding up to swing at Geode when a strange light flashed in his pupils, and he smacked himself between the eyes.
"I've got six that way so far, but it's really slow to get them one at a time," said Mold, hopping over the prone soldier and onto the flour heap. "Is Luff okay?"
"He's sturdier than that," Forge replied, looking at the Jupiter Djinni. "Stunned, though."
The numbers of the Lunpans -those conscious, at least- had dwindled rapidly, but there were still pockets of resistance, and neither Squall nor Shine, who had been wreaking the most havoc, dared get near the defended circles. Every time they even got close, a sweep of an axe or jabbing spear convinced them to retreat.
"This is impossible," Shine called to Squall.
"What?" asked Squall, distracted.
"There's no way to get close!" the Mars Djinni protested.
"Hit 'em, Rime!" shouted Spark.
"What?" asked Shine, startled. "No, no, no charge for glory, no, bad plan!" It was too late. Spark and Rime rushed the cluster of armor and weapons that Shine was keeping at bay, waving kitchen implements threateningly. It was about as effective as Shine expected, and Spark ended up getting smashed aside by a large mace, and rolled away unconscious. Rime stopped his charge and instead ran to his friend's side.
"Oh no, Spark!" Rime moaned. He turned back to the Lunpans. "There's going to be hell to pay for this one!"
"Hey, have you seen Hail?" asked Squall, Rime's threat having triggered the name.
There was a moment's silent contemplation.
"Oh no," mumbled Iron, who had the highest vantage point and could see the scene about to unfold.
"Arr! Avast, ye gutless mortals, this is yer fate fer standing against Hail and striking down a Djinni!" the Mercury Djinni announced, and she shoved a large block of firewood for the ovens onto a plank. It landed heavily, and from the other end of the inclined plank, a cauldron was launched into the air.
It rained nearly-boiling stew onto the group before crashing down amongst them, trapping the one who had hit Spark inside a very small, roughly spherical cell. Shine took the scattered remainder down in a few blazing tackles.
"Spark!" yelled Forge, dashing over. "Oh no… he's hurt pretty bad."
The last group of Lunpan soldiers had backed up to the door, and were about to risk trying to get it open and fleeing before Squall could zap any more of them, when a sound they had been hearing for some time got louder. It was a sort of insistent thunk, thunk sound. And when Forge mentioned that Spark was hurt, it got faster.
Thunk, thunk, th-crunch- the sound of something giving away. Then one more impact, and with a slow, loud creaking, the barred doors toppled inwards on top of the soldiers. With its weight spread out over all of them, it wasn't enough to damage them, but they weren't going anywhere. Fizz marched in on top of the door, carrying the meat cleaver Spark had dodged earlier in her tail.
"They locked me out," she explained, frowning. "I had to chop through the hinges." Without another word, she walked over to Spark and unleashed healing energies.
"Well, that was fun," said Shine. "Where to now?"
"Djinn!" shouted Squall. She got several looks that suggested she'd lost it. "That guy shouted 'Djinn' when we came in here. Not 'intruder', not 'monster', Djinn. They know what we are."
"Oh, great," groaned Luff. "I finally wake up and the first thing I hear is wonderful news."
"No time to worry now," said Fizz. "We've got to find out who's behind this."
"Oh, good, clichés. Now I'm sure we're safe," said Shine. "No one say 'they'll never get away with this', okay?"