Forty-Four || Ultimatum

Mint scrambled away from the teleport stone, fighting to reorient herself for several seconds when she reappeared in the thick of the forest. She wasn't sure what direction the stupid thing had spat her out facing, or where any direction was relative to Carona, but she took her best guess and started storming through the woods, following the gentle upward slope of the land until she stumbled upon the path, and when she did, she started running.

Her charge felt like an eternity as she pushed herself in the direction of the town, forced at points to slow down for shadows creeping along in front of her lest she trip. It was good she did, too; something erupted from the brush a little ways in front of her and turned at a sharp skid. In the darkness it was difficult to tell what way it was going, but she raised her halo and ignited it, casting a flickering but powerful firelight in front of her.

It was a monster, a gray-and-black tiger with dangerously overgrown canines, skidding around down the path and turning very deliberately to face her.

"Now?" she snarled. The fire around the ring blazed hotter; the air in front of her sparked and hissed. "I do not have time for this, you stupid–"

It made a noise between a bark and a yowl, cutting her off, and took a step back. As it moved, it melted into a blaze of blue light, and a moment later Rue was in front of her, palms up, head down.

"It's me!" he said. "It's just me."

Her concentration snapped, and with it went her magic, plunging them into a darkness that failed to hide the scowl on her face. "Oh, what the hell, man? What were you doing?"

"Coming to find you," he said. "We need to–"

She stormed forward and shoved past him. "Don't care. Gotta go."

He turned with her, and as she broke into a run he followed without question.

Light filtered through the trees and gently stained the sky, far too much light for such a dreadful hour, when the town should have been deep asleep. It was only a moment after they saw the light that they came within sight of the main gate and the town wall.

The gate was sealed shut, sleepy still. The wall above it was torn, large chunks of stone blown out of the top, small chunks laying strewn on the ground in front of the gate.

Mint practically threw herself at the doors, forcing herself into a abrupt stop, and pressed her hands against the wall. She closed her eyes and focused, feeling out the energy twisted up in the stone. It was solid beneath her hands and within her senses, but as her awareness neared the upper reaches of the wall she felt something sharp, chaotic, and infuriatingly familiar.

Her eyes snapped open, and she wheeled around.

"Trap Master's been here," she said.

Rue was slowing down, still breathing hard. He nodded to her, gulped down air, forced himself to speak.

"That's why," he said. "I ran into Psycho Master. He said they were doing something in town–"

"I ran into a cute little message left by Trap Master," Mint said. She tore herself away from the gate and ran to the service door. "If he's done anything..."

She yanked the door open, jogged down the alley, and emerged into town.

The whole town was lit up– the lights were on in the windows, the streetlamps all illuminated, clusters of townsfolk waiting outside of their homes or in the broad street in front of the gate or gathered around the fountain, many holding on to individual lanterns. The air was thick with muted conversation and unintelligible whispers and an almost tangible tension.

The ground in front of the interior gate was where most of the damage to the wall had ended up; large boulders blown out of the stone and concrete wall had crashed down to the street and lay in jagged shards in front of the gate. Mint's eyes swept the area for any further sign of damage, for anybody who had been caught in the blast or by the rocks, for any signs of blood on the ground.

But while the town was tense, it didn't seem there had been any injuries. She took stock of the populace in her head. She wasn't familiar with the entirety of the town, but she recognized at a glance almost all of the regulars from the tavern in the pockets of people, and she knew they would be moving a little more rapidly if something had happened. Concern dissipated, but in its place came anger.

"That son of a bitch," she growled. "Couldn't take us on his own so he waited until we were..."

"Kids!"

Both of them turned to the source of the voice, and Mira was stepping out of her house and running toward them. Before they could quite react she had caught them both in her arms, hugging them close for several long seconds before she finally parted. Mint and Rue each staggered slightly, taken completely aback.

Rue managed to speak first.

"Mira," he said, still somewhat breathless. "What happened?"

Her expression had, in that moment, been awash in relief. As soon as Rue asked that question, however, her entire face turned dark and severe, her expression shockingly dramatic in the lantern lights of the town. "That man," she snarled. "That–"

She was biting back a torrent of obscenity, and wound up dissolving into a snarl and whirling away. "I missed most of it," she said. "Got everybody in the cellar as soon as we heard the explosion. Come on."

She led them toward the house. Mint noticed immediately that it, unlike most of the town, was dark.

"Hey..." she started, but Mira practically hurled the door open and led them inside, deftly navigating the clutter of the front room. Mint raised her chakram and willed it to glow, allowing herself and Rue to sidestep the disarray, and she tried to make sense of it. She knew the shop was a mess– was it always this much of a mess?

Mira led them to the back and hauled open the door leading to the basement. Immediately they were flooded with warm light, and she ushered them down ahead of her. When they'd taken the stairs, Mira finally followed, shooting a glance out the window before easing herself in behind them, shutting the trapdoor as she went.

Mint, feeling this was a reasonable cue, shouted; "What the hell is happening!"

"Not so loud," a voice hissed– another woman, dreadfully familiar. "The kid's asleep."

Mint looked away from Mira and into the basement proper. It took her a moment to process what she was seeing.

"Belle?" she hissed. "What is– what thehell."

She couldn't even formulate a question anymore.

Klaus was down there, sitting at his study table, twisted around to lean on the back of the chair; he still looked somewhat pale. Elena was curled up on the bed in the corner, blankets tucked around her, gently snoring into the corner. This, Mint didn't find strange.

What caught her was Belle, standing near a stack of books, impatiently drumming her fingers along a hardcover, and Duke, sitting on one of Klaus' boxes, a cold compress against his face and a faint smile across his lips.

"Well hey," he said. "You guys didn't run into any trouble, huh?"

"We did," Rue said.

"You did," Mint corrected. "I didn't run into anything. Son of a bitch knew I'd be there, he set up a–"

"Trap?" Belle interjected.

Mint glowered at her. "Distraction," she said.

Belle shook her head and looked away again. "Trap for the town," she said. "They lured you two away before they did anything."

Mint clambered to the bottom of the stairs and moved aside, allowing Rue and Mira to follow her. "What did they do?" she asked.

"Nothing," Klaus said.

Duke scoffed and pressed the compress harder against his face. Now that Mint was closer to him, she could see the purpled welling of a bruise spreading out around his eye. "Not nothing," he murmured.

Klaus smiled apologetically. "Nothing to the town," he corrected.

"If you hadn't tried something they probably wouldn't have done anything to you, either," Belle said.

Duke adjusted himself, leaning on his elbow, and scowled. "I was only following your example, milady."

"Hey, hey," Mint said. "Much as I love hearing you banter or whatever, we're kind of out of the loop here."

The three of them managed to exchange a glance, then looked over to Mira. Mira squeezed past Rue and Mint and got herself back toward Klaus.

"Tell us what you saw first," she said.

"A whole bunch of nothing," Mint replied. "Trap Master had some... stuff... set up in Elroy's atelier, but nothing... you know. Living."

Klaus adjusted his glasses. "That's not encouraging," he said.

"I mean a bunch of puppets," Mint corrected. "Not... yeah, wow, I just realized how that sounded." She looked over to Rue. "You said you saw Psycho Master?"

He nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Psycho Master... I think that was where they were gathering most of the puppets from. They'd left by the time I got there, but Psycho Master was still..."

"No luck?" Mint asked.

Rue grimaced. "I couldn't touch him. He..." He exhaled heavily. "He told me we'd almost missed what was happening in town. I headed back as soon as he let me go." His eyes trailed to Mira. "What happened here?"

"As I said, I only came out for the end of it. But..."

"We were here," Belle said, her gaze settling on Mint. "Just like you asked, princess."

Mint looked at her expectantly, but it was Duke who cleared his throat and started speaking.

"You guys were gone for a couple of hours by then," he said. "Milady was on first watch. She wanted me to get some sleep, but..." He chuckled. "Knowing something might happen? I couldn't rest. So I went for a walk, trying to calm down. Took me longer than I expected."

And he told the story.

. . .

Duke stood on the docks, looking out across the ocean. It was a dark night and late enough that the lights of the dock had already been extinguished; the only real light to see by came from a mere sliver of the moon. Even with so little, it cast a faint, silvered sheen over the water, making the minor ripples shimmer.

A quiet moment, simple peace, interrupted by the sound of heavy boots tromping in his direction.

"Didn't see you at the hotel," Belle called.

Duke turned to look back to her, his faint smile lost in shadow. "My shift already?"

"Yeah." Belle stopped where she was a little ways back, leaning on a stack of secured crates. Her eyes were upon him for a moment, but gradually her gaze eased away, turning instead to the ocean. "How long have you been here?"

He shrugged. "I couldn't sleep."

Belle snorted. "What, you worried about those kids?"

"Maybe."

"Well, stop. They're tough. Mint's certainly got the staying power of a roach. I wouldn't worry." She slapped the crate, making a rough sound on impact. "So c'mon. It's your shift, and I want to go to bed."

"Yes, milady," Duke said. He turned away from the water and headed back toward Belle, and once he passed her she detached from her spot on the crates and fell in step alongside him. "I do hope they're all right."

"They better be," Belle said. "They get beaten up out there we're the last line of defense. You've seen what those guys can do. I don't wanna deal with that."

"Milady..."

"It's true."

Duke moved to speak, but held his tongue. Belle sounded callous, but there was a touch of concern in her voice that she couldn't quite hide.

"That's true," he said finally.

At which point they were interrupted by the sound of an explosion and the distant noise of tumbling stone.

At once they flew forward, up the harbor ramp and into town. As they entered, lights had come on in darkened windows and were being rapidly flicked on throughout houses; doors were easing or slamming open, windows flicking open so their occupants could lean out and see. Part of the town was already spilling into the streets; the rest were consciously holding back.

The air was thick was murmurs and whispers and, sometimes, shouts. Most of those seemed to be coming from the far end of the little town, echoing down the streets and rebounding off buildings. Belle and Duke flew, skirting through town square and down the main road until they were within sight of the gate wall.

A few others from town had made their way out to the wall, although all of them were keeping their distance. A fizzing, burning light lay in the middle of the road, the first in a line of lights that led to the broken wall. The sputtering light speckled the broken stone that lay scattered in the streets, and illuminated the figure standing alongside the shattered hunk of the wall, just over the gates.

Trap Master stood nonchalantly, his hands in his pockets, his coat loose and flapping behind him in the breeze, the light below casting dramatic, dangerous shadows across his figure. His grin, however, was impossible to ignore, a white sharpness in the dark.

"Good morning!" he shouted. "Did I wake you?"

There was no response; his words had cut off the rumblings in the town, and those who had arrived now stood, transfixed and terrified, looking up at him.

"Now look here," he said. "We've got some things going down right outside your lovely little shithole here and it looks like some of you folks are gonna make things very hard on us and all of our hard work. And, see, we've dealt with things being very hard. We're good at dealing with things being very hard. None of you want us to think of you that way, though. We are not at all gentle when dealing with things that are being very hard.

"So here's the thing. You got a doll that thinks it's a kid in here, bein' looked after by my dear buddy Klaus Adler, and we sorta need him for what we're doing. The doll I mean, not Klaus. Big important stuff. I asked real polite last time I was in for some help and, well, the old man wasn't real forthcoming, and that's such a shame.

"Now, dude's nuts, let's make sure we're all on the same page. He'd rather get killed than hand over a stupid doll, and that's real noble of him, and I hate that, so let's all stop being heroes. One of you guys has to be smart enough to bring that thing out to us, and if you do? We'll leave you alone. I mean all of you. The town. Somebody in here brings us the doll, we finish up here, vacate your shitty little island, everybody goes home, we're all happy.

"I mean, I know you probably don't get this, but Doll Master's actually a pretty nice guy. He wants to be in and out of here, nobody needs to get hurt.

He removed his left hand from his coat and raised it above his head, open-palmed. He stood like that for a few long seconds, then clenched his hand. Alongside him, another piece of the wall exploded, spewing chunks of stone out toward the gathered mass. The crowd scattered, darting out of the way of the crushing rock and shower of sharp stone fragments that came with it.

His smile grew to a nasty grin.

"And that's why he sent me."

He shoved his hand back into his pocket.

"So let's be clear. One of you yahoos is gonna bring the Prima Doll to the lake by sundown, or I'm gonna pay you another visit tonight, 'cept I'm not gonna be happy about it, and I'll have a couple hundred buddies who aren't gonna be happy about it, either. You hear that!"

He raised his voice for the last one, his words – already powerful – echoing down to the far edge of town.

"You hear that, old man! Give up your little wind-up toy or this town is dust!"

Of course there was no reply. Trap Master snorted and glared down at the gathering.

"He ain't even out here," he growled, but the sound quickly turned into a chuckle, and his consternation melted again into that sharp grin. "What'm'I thinking? Be surprised he can even stand again after our–"

Abruptly, his eyes widened, and he threw himself aside as another explosion rocked the wall, this one bringing with it a great plume of flame just short of where he had been standing. He stared for a moment at where the fire had been, now occupied by a twining trail of smoke, and looked down to the courtyard.

There was Belle, her fingers still sparking, one eye twitching.

"Oh, shut up!" she shouted. "What the hell are you doing, making that kind of noise at this hour!" She lowered her arm, her glare burning up at him. "People are trying to sleep!"

"Sleep!" he shouted. "I'm doin' them a service giving them a warning! You wanna try that again, hag?"

In truth, Belle had not been interested in trying anything again. She had just wanted to prove a point. The town wasn't defenseless, and the town would not cave to his demands. She didn't know what kind of madness was being spun by Doll Master or his cronies; she just knew that it involved them bullying Carona. Belle wasn't exactly a straight arrow, but she had a soft spot for anybody willing to let her run up her tab at the pub or run up a bill at the hotel, and as long as Carona was going to put up with her, she wasn't going to sit back while it was demolished.

That was the point.

Then he said 'hag', and without another moment Belle had twisted the air beneath her, propelled herself across the courtyard, and landed in a blur of dust and annoyance right in front of Trap Master.

"You're kidding me," he growled.

"I," Belle snarled, "am thirty."

She whipped her hand around and loosed a scythe of flame.

Trap Master burst from his place on the wall and flew over her head, landing behind her and slamming his hand into the stone. A small lattice of rock jumped up in front of him, and Belle wheeled, already dragging her flame behind her and whipping it in a sharp downward arc. The stone curved slightly to meet her, and Trap Master jumped to the side, caught the edge of the wall, and arced downward, releasing and landing in the courtyard just as Belle struck his stone trap.

The impact caused a small magical explosion, and the stone shards whipped outward. Belle dragged a cloak of wind across her front, repelling the stone, and when she was safe she twisted and peered over the edge of the gate. Trap Master looked up, arms folded across his chest nonchalantly, and waved.

Duke punched him in the face.

Trap Master was bowled backward, but managed to turn the skid into a roll and leapt back to his feet. He hardly had time to stand up straight before Duke rushed him again, his eyes alight, his fists moving so fast as to be a blur. He punched wildly, but in spite of Trap Master's brief imbalance the man matched Duke for every movement, catching and redirecting his furious jabs. Duke pushed forward, forcing Trap Master back, and suddenly Belle was there, drifting on a gale, a knife in her hand.

Trap Master reached out, caught some of that wind, and snapped it back in front of him. It wasn't much, but the stolen spell was enough to knock Duke just slightly to the side, and it was enough for Trap Master to propel himself in the other direction and smash his knee into Duke's sternum.

The blow caught him completely off guard, and Duke pitched forward, into Trap Master's waiting fist. He hit the ground, one side of his face starting to swell, desperately winded. Belle tried to press in with her knife, but she had already wasted the element of surprise; Trap Master caught her arm, kicked her legs out from under her, and had her twisted in front of him in a heartbeat. The knife wound up out of her hand and in his, and for a terrible moment he looked ready to use it.

Then he tossed it to the side and shoved her into the cobbled streets, and turned to face the gathered crowd.

"Your heroes," he shouted, "are worthless!"

He reached his hand out toward Duke, his magic collecting in prickling threads in his hand. Duke looked up just in time for Trap Master to hurl the makeshift mine down at the ground just in front of him.

"I'll be back tonight!"

He flickered, reappearing in a burst of magic on top of the gate.

"And if any of you are worth a damn, you're going to find that god-damn doll and bring him to us!"

He raised his hand and snapped his fingers, and the magic core he had planted by Duke exploded. Both of them were hurled in different directions by the blast; Belle managed a rolling skid, and Duke only avoided injury through the quick and helpful decision of some of the townsfolk to try and catch him instead of getting out of the way.

By the time things had calmed down in the courtyard, Trap Master was gone.

. . .

Mint looked at Belle, smiling slyly. "Oh, that's cute," she said. "You do care."

Belle snorted. "He took some liberties. Been reading his books again."

Duke smiled sheepishly.

"Not important," Mira snapped.

"What is important," Klaus said, "is that he'll be coming back unless we give them Prima."

There was a moment of silence.

"We're not giving them Prima," Rue said.

"I think we're all agreed on that," Mira added.

"But we can't fight them directly," Mint said. "We've done that before. We seem to get getting our asses kicked."

"We can't let attack the town, though," Mira said. "Those things in the woods... you two can't fight them all."

"Four," Duke said softly.

"Four," Mira corrected. "You can't fight them all."

"Plus Trap Master, plus Psycho Master," Rue said. He shook his head. "No, we can't."

Mint closed her eyes. "No," she murmured. "We can't."

Can't fight them all. Can't let them destroy the town. Can't let them have Prima. Do one of those things and abdicate the need for the others to happen, which meant there was really only one thing to do.

"Okay," Mint said. "So we fight them all."

Everybody looked at her. She smiled.

"We all fight them all," she said. "Town still out there?"

"I can't imagine anybody's going to sleep well with all of this," Klaus said.

Mint's smile turned dangerous.

"I have a plan."