She could feel Mal's shock, Chato's anger… Floyd's determination and Digger's outrage while Katana and Harley radiated grim resolve. Flag alternately despaired and hoped. The Purplebellies behind them like a wall of stoic determination as they fired upon the enemy.
Riddick… Riddick… burned with fury. Wrath embodied him, pulsed over his heart, limned his body in unearthly fire. And he had yet to unleash the full extent of his power.
Below her, Waylon's mind hummed, despite the attacks, in his element he thrived. The remains of Bravo squad struggled with the bomb while he guarded them.
Incubus roared as Riddick stood unmoving against his blows. And returned the favor with several punches and kicks of his own, the shivs he was never without left glowing gaping wounds.
Chato came out of the small room Incubus had kicked him into, fire surrounding his body, changing him, a skeletal being made of flames, a headdress like a mane growing out of his skull, shouting his own challenge back. Between he and Riddick they traded punches with the giant while the rest of them peppered it with gunshots as much as possible.
Thankfully Enchantress seemed to ignore them in favor of whatever spell she was crafting in that roiling energy. That could not be good but none of them could afford to let up on Incubus long enough to attack Enchantress.
River heard Waylon before Mal heard Bravo's signal on the earwig. "Now!" She shouted at the two fighters. "Get him to the corner."
Chato was coming close to losing control, lacking Riddick's disciplined focus and control, he rained fire down on the Incubus. He had driven Incubus into the corner where they needed him but wasn't backing out so the charge could be blown. His rage getting the better of him, all he could see was the enemy.
Riddick couldn't pull him away without being burned himself. Chato's flames were so strong the heat could be felt across the room. "Chato!" River called his name and with an effort linked to his mind, remembering how it felt to aid him channeling his power. Calm, soft and cool, a gentle breeze in his mind, reason coming back to him slowly until his extraordinary form began to fade back into his human shape. "Get out of there!"
"Blow it now!" Chato shouted as he kept his flames burning on Incubus and stepped back.
"Bravo squad, now! Blow it!" Mal shouted into his earwig.
River felt more than saw Chato and Riddick brace, Riddick moving behind Chato as the flames roared and the pyrokinetic took several steps away from the corner. "Everybody down," Flag roared, and the Squad took whatever cover they could.
The explosion, when it came, obliterated everything in its path. Chato and Riddick, at its edge, flew backwards through the air, landing in crumpled heaps against a fallen pillar lying on the stairs. The Enchantress wailed in her own language, an anguished cry for the only being she cared for besides herself. Some of the oppressive atmosphere seemed to fade, the air lightening around them.
At least for the moment.
"Get your pì gu up," Riddick pushed himself to his feet as he admonished El Diablo. Chato, for whatever reason, seemed a little more rattled by flying through the air than Riddick. A look at the rest of the Squad revealed them to be in decent shape, if bruised and scraped.
"Yeah," Chato braced against the pillar and climbed to his feet. "Dunno how much firepower I've got left at the moment though."
"Tired doesn't mean empty, so nut up," He was in no mood for pessimism. Everyone else was doing the same, getting to their feet and approaching the Enchantress.
"You next," Floyd stared at the witch. It clearly hadn't escaped his notice that none of Bravo squad had climbed out of the hole left in the floor. Neither had Waylon. Taking out Incubus had cost them. And now they only had one person (if you could call the Enchantress a person) on whom to inflict their ire.
Cào dàn now he was thinking like River. Woman and her expansive vocabulary was a bad influence on him. Next thing he knew he'd be taking tea with china and cucumber sandwiches and people might forget what he was.
"My spell is complete," the Enchantress spoke again. Oh joy, echoing tones and shadows that filled his ears. Just what he wanted. Sensitive ears and a witch that couldn't seem to be evil and silent at the same time.
River moved towards he and Chato, a hard set to her jaw while Mal and the others drew closer and the Enchantress kept speaking. At this rate he'd kill her just to shut her up. "Once you and your armies are gone, my darkness will spread across this universe. And it will be mine to rule."
She turned her back on them, the ultimate insult, contemptuous disregard for any possible danger they might present to her. That was to say none whatsoever, at least in her opinion. He'd have thought she might have a sense of caution considering what had happened to her brother. But apparently not. The Enchantress gestured upwards and power shot from her hands like lightning. The whirl of angry light and shadow turned dark and somehow more purposeful. A storm cloud filled with lightning, roiling in dreadful resolve.
Wind and rain filled the atrium, lashing their skin and the air seemed to turn dark and angry. Riddick glanced over at Mal, "We got anymore bright ideas?"
"We gotta cut her heart out," Flag called back.
"Oh yeah, 'cause that'll be easy," Digger snarked. And even as he spoke the Enchantress turned.
"No sense waiting," Riddick growled as the witch glared at them and somehow… the only word he could use to describe it… she diminished, crouched on one of the short square dividers on the stairs. Above her the spell rolled and churned, electricity sparking angrily.
Something was coming, something else, glaring at them came across as slightly impotent. And impotent this witch was not. Disappearing in a shower of hot sparks… yeah that seemed more in keeping with everything they'd seen of her so far. Unwelcome but more what he expected.
Reappearing, again with hot angry sparks, in their midst. Also more in keeping with their experiences. Riddick cursed as the Enchantress turned into a whirling dervish of punches, kicks, appearing and disappearing and in general acting as if the Squad were a bunch of toys she could throw around like a child having a tantrum.
Once she'd knocked all of them on the ground at least once, including him, Riddick wasn't too proud to admit, she disappeared again.
"Where is she, the xié 'è de tā mā de jiàn huò," Harkness had been the latest to get kicked to the floor and sounded slightly winded as he pushed himself up again.
"I can't see her," Mal shook his head, one hand pressed to his side and through the wind Riddick could smell pain. He likely had some broken ribs.
"While we're fighting, that thing is laying waste to the whole tiān shā de 'verse," River pointed out.
"Where is she," Flag looked around a bit wild-eyed.
Harley shook her head, "I don't know." And even as she said it the Enchantress's evil laughter surrounded them and Harley cursed, "Tā shì suǒ yǒu dì yù jì nǚ de mǔ qīn."
The twin swords, long black triangular blades of shadow and obsidian, were new, Riddick thought absently as he defended himself. Punching the witch should have been satisfying but when she just spun and disappeared it didn't have the same feel. Chato alternated a hand of flames and the Iskellian he'd picked up, but he didn't have any more luck hitting the witch than anyone else. Floyd managed to block the swords with the weapons he wore on his forearms, and even managed a punch of his own.
Of course in return she kicked him into a stone wall and if she hadn't knocked him out, Floyd was giving a good imitation of momentary unconsciousness. Harley and River tag teamed her, with Harley damn near getting her head sliced off. Mal took his swing, ducked hers and sat down hard, not entirely by choice.
While the Enchantress advanced on Mal, River sliced at her with her sword and Harley hit her across the back with her bat. The Enchantress spun and Harley actually tried to hide her bat behind her back. "Uh oh."
River and Harley went flying towards Chato and Riddick, River rolling to her feet while Harley took a moment to gather her breath before she got up. Flag hurled himself into the fight, maybe as a distraction, and Floyd shouted as the Enchantress tried to stab the soldier in the back, blocking the attempt with his forearm again. Katana spun and slashed and in return was rewarded with a shove hard enough that the swordswoman stumbled, fell and actually lost her blade.
Harkness, maybe because he had a soft spot for Katana, or maybe not, threw one of his boomerangs at the witch only to have her disappear before it could strike and reappear three feet above him, driving down with her blades. Harkness got another of his bladed boomerangs up to block her swords and hold her off but despite Floyd emptying two cartridges into her back couldn't heave her off.
He'd seen shadows moving during the fight but hadn't been able to pay as much attention to their surroundings as he liked. So Riddick found himself as surprised as the rest of the Squad when Waylon grabbed the witch by her ankles with a growl and threw her against the wall.
"Was her turn," Riddick muttered as Waylon picked her up and threw her once more only to have her disappear again as he let go of her ankles.
The Enchantress stood beneath her churning spell, "Enough." Her eyes glowed and sparks danced around her as she glared down at them. Every weapon they held flew towards the bottom of the stairs with an impatient wave of her hand.
River pressed her hand to his and Riddick felt the familiar sensation of her anchoring to his mind. For once the end of every nerve firing with pleasure came in second as the Enchantress continued to speak. "Of all who have faced me…You have earned mercy. For the last time… Join me…or die."
River let go of Riddick's hand and stepped forward. She could feel him fight the urge to grab her back. She had a plan, he could tell, whether or not it would work… well, their luck had to change sometime.
"Not much of a joiner but," River glanced over at Harley. "Perhaps we should." Thank Book's God that Harley knew her, remembered River's elaborate pranks and the play-acting they'd done to accomplish them in school. She couldn't do this without Harley. And they hadn't gotten to plan this out nearly as much as she'd have liked.
"Hey," Floyd frowned at the two of them when Harley started to nod her agreement.
"She's trying to take over the 'verse," Mal added as if they'd forgotten.
"So?" Harley walked towards River, "What's the 'verse ever done for us anyway?" River flicked her fingers and Harley stepped slightly in front of River. She had excellent skills as a screen, and being the more flamboyant of the two of them, drew attention naturally.
"It hates us," River added decisively. "We are alternately mocked and reviled. Or used and imprisoned." She looked at Riddick, "Never given a choice in our lives that wasn't between a rock and a hard place."
She walked with Harley towards the stairs as Harley held up hand to shade her eyes from the sparks and wind, allowing her old friend to remain a half step in front of her. Brilliantly Harley took on the tone of a supplicant, "Hey, lady? I…I lost my puddin'. But you can get him back, right?"
River watched as the Enchantress descended the steps, speaking as if a mother to a child. A psychotic mother to a crazy child but still… "I can my dear… Anything you want."
River forced herself to remain solemn as she walked. For all her insanity, nothing had messed with Harley's intelligence, her memory or her innate gift for manipulating people. Even an ancient meta-human of immense power could be tricked. The Enchantress wanted a trusting foolish child, Harley gave her one, "You promise?"
"Yes, child," the Enchantress paused on the steps, her gaze moving towards River. "But this one, you have something else in mind… I can feel your rage, the power of it fills you."
"Freedom," River nodded. "A lost world restored. A black rock made whole again."
The Enchantress had to be getting her information from Waller still for she knew exactly to what River referred. "The world of Shadow, a dead planet, to be given new life," She mused. "A fitting gift for such a powerful woman. It pulses within you."
"But I cannot make a black rock green with life again," River offered letting sorrow drip from her voice. "You can. But will you? Now?"
"Life… while my spell brings destruction to those who destroyed that world," the Enchantress actually gave it consideration. River kept her eyes on the witch, hope written on her face, grateful the Enchantress couldn't Read her mind. Harley and River had many a discussion in school about giant egos and the ways to manipulate them into desired behaviors. Flattery had been a widely used, and hugely successful method. Thank Book's dear and fluffy lord for Harley's fantastic memory.
"Is it possible," Mal seemed to be getting an inkling of what River and Harley were trying to do. "Can you, actually do that? Bring my world back to life?"
"I can," the Enchantress turned her gaze on him, and River could feel her Bà ba almost flinch. "Should I do this, you would join me?"
"Ma'am, if you could bring my world back to life, make it green again, yeah, I'd throw in with you," Mal ignored Flag's outraged gasp and Floyd's hiss of his name.
"My… and those you have led here will they follow you?" the Enchantress eyed the rest of them as she descended another step, slithering as a snake in her movements.
"My woman throws in with you…" Riddick drawled thoughtfully. "Yeah. Though I ain't much for the bowing and begging thing. Doesn't do much for me."
"The arrogance of Furya, warrior, join me and rebuild your race in the age of magic," the Enchantress whispered sibilant and low.
"Have not said if you will," River reminded her, dark eyes as entreating as she could make them. Which as Simon and Mal could testify to, were pretty gorram beseeching.
"Yes my dear, I will, as a token of good faith, and in gratitude for the allies you bring with you," the Enchantress gestured towards the spell, green and blue lightning flying from her hands. River watched it fly and let her mind follow it, feel the intent of it, and half smiled as Shadow began to bloom.
"What has been done will not be undone," She whispered and offered the witch a half smile before turning to look at Chato and Waylon. "Join us. The Alliance will never stand against her and we could be free."
Chato's hands were limned with flames, "My family was human. All she's done is kill people. Turn 'em into monsters."
River reached down and picked up Katana's blade, half turning in unspoken threat, "Do not." She cautioned, hardening her voice.
"I would have none who are not willing," the Enchantress descended to stand beside Harley and River. "But you, my allies… You need only bow…and serve beneath my feet."
River looked at Harley and nodded, they'd never get a better chance. Harley offered the Enchantress a tremulous smile, "I like what you're selling, lady." She took a deep breath, "There's only one teeny problem."
The Enchantress looked at her and River struck, panther fast and slashed downward, the Wrath of Furya climbing along the blade like blue fire. "You messed with our friends."
Harley reached in and yanked out the glowing green heart of the witch.
And all hell broke loose.
He'd freely admit he had no clue what his yǎng nǚ and her crazy friend were up to. His heart just about gorram stopped when they began to move towards the Enchantress, talking about joining her. Then River asked about Shadow and he saw the wicked little smile on her face as she turned to look at him… his Lil Albatross had a plan. So he'd fallen in line, like he tended to do when his little mind reading genius had a plan. Over the years he'd learned life was a lot simpler, and there was a lot less yelling, when he went along with River's plans.
If he'd just met she and Riddick five minutes ago Mal still would have been able to tell that the two of them were involved somehow. The two of them didn't even need words to communicate. All River had done was give the big hún dàn a look and he'd backed her play.
The others weren't in on it and hadn't caught on either but none of them knew River as well as he, or apparently Riddick, did. It worked out though, because when River picked up that sword it appeared as if she were threatening Chato on the behalf of the Enchantress. He'd give odds she'd planned it that way.
What no one expected, and thus came as a complete shock, was the blue energy of Riddick's power to extend along the blade. And no one anticipated Katana's oh-so-special-soul-sucking-sword to practically explode into smoke and blue flames almost in River's face. Or for River to be flung across the room and, for once, not land on her feet. Riddick might have teleported he was at her side so tiān shā de quickly.
"Her heart's out," Flag shouted over the rain and wind.
"We can end this," Mal nodded towards Flags pack. "How many more bombs you got?"
"A few," Flag grabbed the bag. "Figure to throw them into the spell? Kill it?"
"Yeah, if Waylon can throw them up there, Floyd'll be able to hit the thing easy," Mal nodded.
Behind them, what was left of Bravo and Alpha teams opened their weapons up, shooting at the roiling mass of cloud, smoke and lightning.
Everything went according to his plan. Harley tossed Floyd her gun, Waylon threw the bombs into the spell.
It made a nice little explosion. Very impressive. Unless you were trying to destroy a spell meant to tear the 'verse apart so an evil witch could remake it in her image.
Yeah, unless you were trying to do that. In which case the explosion…not so very impressive.
The Enchantress's laughter rang through the air, "There is nothing you can do. All your pitiful efforts. Your machines are nothing. To come so far, dare so much… only to learn you are helpless against magic."
"Not so tā mā de helpless as you think," Riddick had a snarl to his voice that set every hair on the back of Mal's neck stand on end. In his arms he held River, her dark eyes fixed on the witch's shadow and spiderweb draped form. Chato and Waylon stood on either side of them, crouching beside Riddick as he set River down and took a knee.
"Ace in the hole," River murmured, and power thrummed in her voice the way it had in the bar. "The strength of Waylon. The power of Chato. The wrath of Riddick. And me. Take in the ocean of power and narrow it down to the River. Channel it."
"Through me," Riddick's voice. Granted, Mal didn't know the man well, but he hadn't ever heard that particular tone before. And he recalled that River had called Riddick's glowy blue fire Wrath.
He'd seen Riddick fighting Incubus. Outlined in glowing blue, larger than life, disturbingly dangerous. He'd seen the weird glowy blue heartbeat on Riddick's chest. He'd noticed that light seemed to glow hotter when the big man got aggravated.
This was something new.
Like a shockwave, but not. Blue fire expanding out from Riddick's chest, pulsing like Riddick's heart. River cried out, and Riddick's hand captured hers, holding it tightly, and incredibly the blue…stuff increased.
When it hit the dark churning cloud of the spell the collision of energy sounded like a shockwave. Mal had to rethink his little explosion being impressive. Whatever River and the trio of male metas had done…
Well… being unconscious was a perfectly valid choice of occupation. Wasn't it?
Author's Note: Oops… so the bomb didn't do what they thought it would do. I thought that was a little weird. All that magic trumping machinery but a bomb took out a massive spell? I gave some hints but wasn't sure if anyone would figure it out or not. Too obvious or did I keep you guessing?
One more chapter… let's not forget Waller after all. Then we'll have the aftermath starting Chapter 4 of Don't Make Any Sudden Moves.
Chinese Translations:
pì gu (butt)
Cào dàn (fuck)
xié 'è de tā mā de (unholy fucking)
jiàn huò (bitch)
tiān shā de (goddamn)
Tā shì suǒ yǒu dì yù jì nǚ de mǔ qīn (She's the mother of all the whores in hell)
Bà ba (Dad, pops, daddy)
yǎng nǚ (adopted daughter)
hún dàn (bastard)
tā mā de (fucking)