Chapter Sixteen:
We're on our way.
The Professor's voice echoed in both Storm and Kurt's mind, reassuring them the X-Men were now aware of the threat on the church.
Storm took a step forward and regarded the demon with scrutiny. They had to figure out a way to keep it from harming them or any of the civilians. She could only hope the Professor...and the Slayer...knew how to stop the demon's attack completely.
Kurt was crouching next to the tall column, which they had ducked behind when the demon first appeared. He was watching it with wide eyes. He had always believed in things such as demons and angels...but he had truly never expected to see one. But, he was not just seeing it, and neither was anyone else. The temperature in the long room was growing colder by the second, and there was an invading sense of dread hanging in the air. Kurt felt the demon's presence almost more acutely than he saw it.
"We have to get these people out of here," Storm said quickly. She crouched down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
Kurt glanced back at her, "There is an emergency door behind the lower choir loft. Hopefully, most of them will find it before..."
His sentence was cut off as the last three rows of pews were torn from the floor and shoved to the side. The demon was lurching forward slowly, its body swirling with limited dexterity. It was weak...hungry...and it was reaching in the direction of the scattering congregation.
Kurt looked back in the demon's direction and the expression on his face changed. Any remaining fear or doubt was lost beneath his growing outrage. This creature was not simply attacking his fellow worshippers, it was now desecrating this place that he held so dear. It was bringing violence into the only place where Kurt felt at peace. He curled his fingers tightly around his rosary and stood up.
Before Storm could stop him, Kurt walked out into the open, never letting his eyes leave the demon as he moved toward the center aisle.
"Kurt!" she called to him urgently, "Wait!"
She could hear him muttering angrily at the creature, but did not understand the words. He was holding his rosary out in front of him like a shield, but Storm did not have the same faith in the holy symbol as he did.
The demon's yellow eyes focused on Kurt and it lurched forward again. Kurt made no indication that he would try to get out of its way. Storm began to move toward him, but Kurt called over to her.
"No! Stay there!" he shouted over the demon's harsh squalling, "I know what I'm doing!"
I know what I'm doing... the words echoed in Storm's mind, and she felt an unusual sensation rise in her chest. Panic. Because she had heard those words before...just before Jean died...before Jean sacrificed herself...
"No," she said softly and looked between Kurt and the demon. He was trying to face this creature alone, this thing with which he shared a vague, superficial likeness.
She could not watch another one of her friends die.
Before the demon could get any closer, Storm turned toward it and felt the air around her crackle to life. She began to walk forward, and used her power to stir up the wind. The candles she passed were extinguished entirely, as the gusts grew stronger. The demon's body seemed to be made of mostly a strange smoke, and Storm wondered if disrupting the air in the church would affect it.
When Kurt saw her eyes begin to glow white, he called out to her again.
"Storm!" he shouted now struggling to be heard over the demon's noise and the roar of the wind. He could feel the electric charge building around Storm, but as the creature's attention shifted, it did not seem at all intimidated by her pending attack.
The rush of air made Storm's hair fly forward into her face and she tried to shove the demon out of the church's doors.
Tendrils of dark smoke extending from the demon's body wrapped around the supporting columns as its body rippled backward. The cloud of shadow forming its head was pulled back taunt against its featureless face. There was a low rumble as the creature growled and pulled itself closer to the two X-Men.
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Cyclops maneuvered his car skillfully down the winding road toward the church, and gracefully tried to ignore the Slayer's sarcastic criticisms about his driving by focusing on their mission. Bobby sat next to him in the passenger seat and struggled not to laugh.
"Come on, man!" Faith chided him from the back seat, "The gas petal's the one on the right!"
"We'll be there in two minutes," Cyclops replied with annoyance, "I suggest you use the time to find out more about that ceremony you'll need to do when we get there."
"Mary's on it," Faith shot back, and glanced at the young woman next to her, "Right, girl? What you got?"
As the car turned sharply, Mary struggled to keep the volume of lore open on her lap, as she sat uncomfortably between Faith and Peter. From what Faith had told her, Mary had been able to look up the spells used by the vampire coven that had originally summoned the demon.
"It a little confusing," she replied honestly, "But it looks like there are only a few incantations left to be read before the thing becomes completely solid. Then, you'll be able to confront it physically..."
"And kill it physically..." Faith agreed with a wide grin that made Mary a little uneasy.
"When you...kill it," Mary said slowly, "What happens to it?"
Faith shrugged, "It'll go back to where ever it came from."
"All these spells to summon it and just a wound to the neck will get rid of it?" Mary asked doubtfully and Faith frowned.
"Better hope so, babe," she replied, "Or else you better find something else in that book that'll do a better job."
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Storm's eyes were alive with power as the demon moved closer to her.
The force of the winds were powerful enough to send tables and heavy candelabras skidding across the floor, but the creature used any solid structure it could wrap around to give it the leverage needed to pull itself forward.
The walls were shaking from its effort and Storm realized her defensive tactic would only keep it at bay for so long. She would have to try something stronger.
Kurt was trying to reach her before the demon, but could not move against the raging air around him. Suddenly, he felt the static crackle of Storm's attack and braced himself for what he knew was coming.
Storm raised her arms and the large stained glass window to her right shattered. A burning white bolt of lightning tore over her head and shot toward the demon. There was a blinding flash and the sound of an explosion as the electric force cracked through the church, and then for a moment, everything fell silent.
Storm was breathing deeply as the lightning's glare faded and she searched for any sign of the demon. She allowed her power to ebb and the winds calmed.
Kurt raised his head and blinked as he stared over at Storm. The afterimage of the sudden light was still dancing in front of his eyes, and he squinted as he called out to her.
"Storm!" he shouted, "What happened? Is it gone?"
She lowered her arms and turned her head back and forth.
"I don't know!" Storm called back, still searching, "Do you see it anywhere?"
Kurt stood up and scanned the dark corners of the church with his eyes for any sign of the creature. But as the heat of the lightning faded, he immediately sensed the bitter chill returning around him.
"It's still here!" he called to her, instinctively crouching to a defensive position.
"Where?" Storm called back, and Kurt clenched his fists in frustration, his rosary digging into his palm.
"I don't know..." he replied.
Storm turned her head once more, her long, white hair twirling over her shoulders, and then she began to walk toward him.
"I don't see it," she whispered back to him, "Maybe the shock was enough to at least stun it."
Kurt looked away from her, and tried to search the shadows around them for any sign of a threat. Storm walked until she was standing near him, keeping a sharp eye on the vast empty space around them. She looked down at Kurt and sighed.
"At least the other people got away before it could take them," she said.
Kurt glanced up at her with a grin, "Yes...thank God for that..."
"I don't see anyone else, maybe we should get out of here before..." Storm continued.
However, her words were suddenly cut off as an invisible force wrapped around her throat. Kurt saw her eyes grow wide as she was lifted from the ground.
From the ceiling above, long strands of black smoke were reaching down and curling around Storm's limbs. Kurt watched in surprised horror as the creature materialized from the upper shadows of the steeple. Its floating face sneered at him as it drew its newest prey higher.
"No!" he called out, "Stop!"
But his voice sounded frightened and weak even to his own ears, and he heard the demon squeal in vile laughter. Its disembodied tail cracked like a whip over Storm's head.
Almost without thought, Kurt teleported himself to the spot where Storm was being held, and put his arms around her shoulders before gravity drew his body back to the ground. The sudden added weight caught the demon off guard, and Storm was ripped free of its grasp as she and Kurt fell.
He barely had a second to judge when to make his next jump, but both he and Storm disappeared just before they would have hit the remaining pews. When they rematerialized, they were still high above the ground, but their acceleration downward was halted as Kurt grabbed onto an upper scaffold with his long tail.
He strained to reach upward with one arm while still holding Storm's unconscious form to his chest. He drew her up onto the large beam, and then saw the demon shift its vaporous body in their direction again.
Kurt glared at it and tightened his hold on Storm. He looked down at her and saw her eyes were open, but unaware. Kurt took one of her hands in his own and teleported again, just as the demon's smoking limbs reached out to snatch them.
When they appeared once more, Kurt was standing at the front of the church and pulled Storm behind the altar carefully. He laid her down on one stone step and brushed the hair from her face. He waved a hand in front of her blank stare, but there was no response.
Ororo, please wake up, he thought, and then heard the demon shriek in fury again.
He shifted and peered carefully around the marble table. The creature was tearing past the pews again, and the splintering sound of wood breaking joined the horrid screeches.
Kurt struggled with his own anger and looked over at Storm again. She had once told him that anger could help you survive. He told her that faith could as well. Maybe, right now, he needed a little of both.
He brushed one hand along her hair gently and felt new tears burning his eyes.
"I have to go now," he said softly, "I know what I'm doing...and I will come back."
Kurt closed his eyes, and disappeared again.