"What the hell, they've got Topsy too?" the wounded girl asked as Revel clasped her arms around the poor thing.
"Presumably," she replied, moving the two of them away from what was now a vertical garden, out of the reach of fallen debris and vampires. "Can you charge me up? I'm almost out."
"Same here," Skitter, no, scratch that, Taylor, whispered as she reoriented her swarm around the two of them, flies, wasps and bees buzzing around them. A handful of dragonflies flew in front of her face. "Where's the…"
"Here," Revel replied, holding up the little stone Eb had made for her. She wasn't quite sure about the specifics, but it was capable of storing energy just like her lantern was, with the added bonus that it also worked on slightly more metaphorical energies
Taylor whispered something in Latin, and she saw a few sparks of energy fly between the bugs, into her stone. Not much, but it would do.
"What's the plan?" Taylor asked.
Revel tried to asses the situation. Dresden had disappeared into the building to help Taylor's friend, the sexy vampire had gone who knew where.
The guests, the ones they'd met during their talks at the party, had seemingly disappeared, each using their own methods to stay out of the battle.
That left the monster, and the seemingly mastered vampire that had escorted Taylor. The thing was no longer contained, and an endless cavalcade of flesh seemed to stream out of the tumbling circle.
Flesh met black mist, resulting in a red mist that filled the side of the battlefield, drops of blood shooting into the sky where they fell on Skidmark's glowing paths. Hadn't she taken him out?
"Skidmark, Topsy, can you find them?" she asked.
"I'll try," Taylor said, "What else?"
"Stay alive," Revel whispered, "I didn't come here without a plan, help is on its way."
"Seems like a plan so far," Taylor whispered.
"Just take a good look at my buttons," Revel whispered, bundling the left-over energy in her gemstone together.
"Found them, I think," Taylor said "In the mansion, they're yelling about something, and I think Skidmark's bleeding. And… there's a lot of wounded people, human I think, on the side of the building."
Revel nodded, then turned towards the mansion, flying the both of them past the clouds of red and black mist, to where she could get a proper view.
Bodies littered the side of the mansion, some of them still moving ever so slightly, while others had quieted down.
"Damnit…" Revel whispered. This… this hadn't been part of the plan. It wasn't what she'd intended. Nonetheless… she view closer, pushing Taylor's head away from the carnage against her struggles and protests.
She hovered above a teenager, a boy, a child really. A bit pudgy and pasty, probably didn't have the greatest time at school and found a sub-culture he liked, then got sucked into magical drugs and a party where he was literally used as cattle.
This one probably hadn't died from the impact, and his body had gone limp enough that none of the limbs were overly twisted. His neck though, was utterly torn apart, the skin around it licked dry of blood.
"There are thousands of these fuckers…" Revel whispered, mostly to herself. "Maybe millions…"
A voice whispered something in her ear, words she'd been waiting for. It was time for the following phase of the plan.
"Skitter, do you still have a lock on Topsy and Skidmark?" she asked with newfound resolve.
The girl nodded.
"Give me a line," Revel said. "To Topsy."
Some wasps broke off from the swarm, one floating between them and the mansion, the other right behind it, in a long perfectly straight line.
"Thanks," Revel whispered as she fired her final orb of energy, flying straight over the line of wasps, through several walls and ceilings, into soft vampire-flesh.
Again, the world twisted ninety degrees beneath them. The angle, sadly was off, and the bodies started falling into the sky.
***Of Monsters and Masquerades***
"Topsy! Set me down right now!" Bianca screamed, waving around her bloody arms, as if trying to get purchase on the air.
Nothing happened, and I could see Bianca's well-composed face twist and snarl as she kept shouting out her minion's name.
"You see, that's the problem with you, with all you monsters. You put on a mask and you play at being human, but you don't get it, not really."
"I'll have you gutted for this Dresden!" Bianca shouted, real teeth visible behind once-human lips. "Your council will gladly deliver me your severed head for this!"
"See, that's what I mean," I replied. "You just don't get how loyalty works. You turn people into addicts and think that will make them loyal to you, when all they really care about is their next hit."
"I command hundreds!" she replied, the outline of light behind her blazing like a star. Basic physics, heating air.
"Hundreds of what? Of vampires waiting for the moment they can kill you and take your place? Of mercenaries that run the moment their paycheck doesn't weigh up against the risk? Of broken people willing to backstab you the moment someone offers them a better hit? Do you think it's a coincidence that all you've acquired so far is third-rate idiots that lost their support-system months ago?"
"It matters not," Bianca replied. "You have no idea about what kind of forces I have behind you, you and all your naive friends!"
The heat of her dress, larger behind her, had slowly given her some velocity, slowly pushing her towards me as she licked the blood off of her claws. I didn't look down at myself, didn't dare see the state I was in.
"They're not just my friends, they're heroes, good people," I whispered, taking a quick look up. The mansion was gone,everything up to the floorboards sucked into the sky. Behind that were the dungeons, the larder, the places where they'd stowed away the corpses of their victims.
There was a portal to the Never-Never down there. One currently in use by Kravos's ghost, wielding the strength of Genoscythe and whatever else he'd eaten.
Bianca lashed out with a claw I managed to block with my earth-staff, pushing myself further away from her. That gave me time, time I could use to look back down.(or was it up?)
I tried to remember what Murphy had taught me on the range. About steady arms, and how to adjust your aim when shooting up or down, which never had seemed quite this complicated when she'd explained it.
"See Bianca, the thing is, you're not the only one that can bring back the ghosts of the dead to wreak vengeance on your enemies!" I shouted, collecting as much energy as I could into a single point, centered on the end of my fingers, held out in the shape of a gun. "It's just that, in my case, we call it justice."
Energy shot out of my fingers, firing away before I could speak a single word alongside my spell, and a the thin beam lasered up (down?) into the metal ring, the one that Kravos was using to partially enter this world.
The ring broke open from the impact, the monstrous fleshy form growing in size ten-fold, then a hundred-fold, floating in mid-air as its attention was focussed on Mavra, who had so far been fighting off the half-maddened thing. Was that still Kravos in there?
After a few seconds, the flesh-thing was fully through, a fall-floating thing rivaling the bulb of flesh we'd gotten rid off just a few months ago in size. The portal, now broken open, didn't stop at just Kravos's ghost though and though not nearly as impressive, I saw flits of energy come out. Ghosts, the remnants of the dead, echoes of the living back to take care of their unfinished business.
And in this place, at this time, with these people? I knew exactly what that unfinished business that was, and from the looks of it, so did Bianca.
Her face looked grim for a second, no longer smiling as what seemed to be a tidal wave of the dead came in from above. Then, she smiled.
"Well, at least I can take you with me, in return for what you did to Rachel," she spoke, and moved her hands into the flames of her dress, turning them ever brighter.
"Riflettum!" I shouted as Bianca turned into a blazing sun, lighting up the Chicago night.
The shield, weak as I was right now, was not enough, and I could feel the heat radiating through it, and smelled that distinct spell that was oh so slightly too similar to fried pork.
I tried to shift, to draw a sigil in the air and apply my power, but we were still falling, and I could feel the heat cooking my fingers, my shield starting to fade as the radiating light forced my eyes closed
Something brushed past my legs, a soft, cool nothing moving up my arms, into my shield, and the heat started to recede.
One touch became many, and I felt my shield grow beyond my control. Opening my eyes, it had enveloped Bianca all around her, a contained ball of fire slowly cooling as the spirits of the dead allowed her to kill herself.
The flames receded, and the shield disappeared, filling the night-sky with ash as my fall upwards slowly came to a halt. Bianca was gone, consumed by another pale imitation, this time mimicking a death curse.
I looked down (up?) in relief, and spotted the mansion, held in place in mid-air. It, debris and bodies, held in place by an ominous green glow, created by a faceless spectre standing in the sky besides it.
He was here, and Reds weren't quite Endbringers. The fight was won, I could rest.
***Of Monsters and Masquerades***
Several minutes earlier
The perspective shifted as the camera moved past black and red mist, then focussed in on a corpse. Just one of many, a child, guilty of nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Why was I not told?" the woman in the suit asked, as the men in uniform looked on.
"Corruption" Eidolon replied. "Infiltration of the PRT, presumably. You heard her speech, they do not fear our capes."
"And how many of these people, these… vampires, were there again?"
"Easily hundreds of thousands," Eidolon replied "I've done some analysis with a Thinker power, they have a presence in nearly every major city, which is nothing compared to the amount of influence they have further to the south. It wouldn't be inaccurate that any time you read the words Cartel Leader, that actually means Red Court Vampire."
"And you only bring this to me now because?"
"The energies involved with these creatures, their magic, interferes with normal recording technology. This direct feed is only possible because one of our Tinkers figured out a way shield against this effect. The moment Revel knew what she had was roughly the moment I called for this meeting," Eidolon explained, watching the onlooking generals. He'd checked the woman in-depth, but there was no telling how far up the corruption went in the army. How many of them had helped in keeping the existence of magic hidden?
"It is good that you brought all of this directly to me," she said. "If these things are only half as good at subterfuge as I suspect they are, they would've intercepted the message immediately, or manipulated us into inaction."
Eidolon nodded, smiling behind his mask. The voice wasn't happy with this, which meant it had been a good idea. "So you'll sign the order?"
"I will," the woman said, to the protest of a few of the Generals. Pen in hand, she grabbed the piece of paper he'd prepared beforehand, and signed her name. "Then by the powers vested in me as president of the United States of America, I hereby authorize lethal force against all members, both domestic and otherwise, of this self proclaimed 'Red Court', by police, Protectorate, and the entirety of the armed forces."
"Thank you," Eidolon said, looking around the room. None of these men would assault their leader, that much his danger-sense told him. He grabbed a small radio from his belt, and activated it, "Mission successful," he whispered to Revel as he threw away his current powerset, trusting his agent to give him what he needed.
"Now if you don't mind Sir, I will go and bail out my people," he said, anticipating the fighting as his powers started coming in.
"Give them hell," was the last thing he heard before a Mover power transported him to the Chicago skyline. A second power created a gravitic cushion, catching any debris falling up from above. The third showed him the biggest threat around. A pulsating mass of ghostly flesh that seemed to have destroyed its first opponent, and was questing for more.
A Worthy Opponent.
"Are you sure?" The voice in the back of his head asked. "It was designed to defeat you and yours. Allow me to assist, and we shall surely achieve glorious victory"
He pondered the words as teleportation and enemy-sense receded, turning into tools for battle. He'd been getting weaker, and the strange ghost-thing would be a difficult opponent, but he reveled in that, in that thrill that had so long been denied to him. No, he would not accept the offer today
He held out an arm, forging an impossibly large blade from blackened flames, and smiled. Today, he had gained not only this fight, but a thousand more to come. The Red Court would not go quietly, and though he hated to admit it, that suited him just fine.
"Are you sure you do not need my help, dear David?" the voice asked him as he rocketed downwards through the sky.
"I know that you're at a moments call if I need you," he replied. She was always close, always waiting, offering glimpses of strength, hoping to corrupt him. Still, she had proven herself a useful tool over the years, and there was no need to throw away dear Lasciel just yet. This would all be over very soon.