Chapter 53: Angry Brides
Source of Kevin's exorcist's prayer: www. catholic prayers/ ?p=682
WARNING: Prayer must be said by a priest only. Anyone else could be liable for demonic possession, harm, or death of a loved one.
Okay, I admit, I had a little too much fun with this chapter, especially the bit with the "exorcism." And the prayer is part of a real exorcist prayer, so I don't suggest reciting it. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.
"An abandoned mine in the desert?" Isaac asked, arching an eyebrow. He was sitting behind a metal desk inside the giant rectangular ship. A lamp was attached to the desk, the beam of light erupting from it incredibly strong. A recording device was on the desk, taking down everything that was being said. The Pride was on the other side, sitting on metal chairs bolted to the floor.
"Yes, the old Bellwood mine," Evan said continuing with the interrogation. "It was closed down some years ago thanks to a fire breaking out, and due to the recession operation never started up again. It was a small mine too, so that's probably another reason why no one's looked into reviving it."
"And you believe that the DNAliens want whatever is in that mine?" Isaac asked.
"After further speculation we've concluded that the mine must have been a quartz mine," Carter attested. "The mineral is very common, especially near the Bellwood area, and there are plenty of quartz deposits littering the desert. And since the mine was abandoned, it wouldn't be too hard for the DNAliens to secretly start up the mine and continue the operation."
"Professor Paradox of the 1950s experiment Project Paradox also used quartz to power his time machine," Sam pointed out. "Obviously there are some properties in quartz that can power things straight out of science fiction."
Isaac nodded once and turned off the recording device. He then turned off the intense light of the lamp, plunging the room into darkness. The ceiling lights turned on seconds later, revealing a soundproofed room covered in metal.
"Why do you insist on interrogating us like that?" Carter complained as the Pride stood up.
Isaac cracked a grin. "It has a nice ambience to it."
Tyler was lying on a bed, eyes closed. He looked like he was sleeping, except Cordelia had a hand on his sweaty forehead. She was searching through his memories, pouring over every detail of Tyler's imprisonment, trying to find the truth behind his words.
Tyler suddenly cried out, jerking his head away. His eyes snapped open and he panted heavily. Cordelia slowly withdrew her hand.
"Memory searching can be a horrible thing to experience," she said as the boy began to calm down. "The good thing is that it seems we have all the information we need."
"You believe me then?" Tyler rasped out.
Cordelia nodded. "Your story checks out. Everything you've told us is along the lines of what we have on the High Breed invasion." She withdrew a stack of papers from her coat pocket. "Here's all the information on your current life. We'll take you back home tomorrow. Get some rest for now." With that she up and left Tyler.
Cordelia walked down the hallway until she met up with Isaac, who had been searching for her. "Everything checks out okay?" was the first thing he asked.
She nodded. "Tyler's been telling the whole truth. I told him we'd search for his current residence tomorrow."
"What do we do with the oscillator key?" Isaac asked. "The High Breed will do anything to take it back. And with their network it's only a matter of time until they find it."
Cordelia shook her head in disgust. "I hate to say it, but the DNAlien intelligence network is almost as good as ours."
"Another thing that worries me is what's going on in Los Soledad," Isaac revealed. "No doubt the final battle will be held there, and the High Breed invasion force will be thousands strong. We may have to finally alert the other Slayers what's going on."
Cordelia slowly nodded. "I agree. The situation is too dire to simply leave to Ben and the Pride."
"Normally I would agree with you, but that plan would have catastrophic consequences," a refined British voice sounded through the hallway. Cordelia and Isaac calmly turned to Professor Paradox leaning against the wall, all traces of humor swept away from his immortal face.
"Rare seeing you Paradox," Isaac greeted him.
"How would such a plan have catastrophic consequences?" Cordelia narrowed her eyes. "It's exactly what we've been fighting for: a union between the Plumbers and Slayers."
"What you're planning has an overwhelming amount of Slayers on the battlefield," the professor pointed out. "The Plumbers will be stretched out to their limits trying to help all the planets the High Breed will destroy, while the Slayers are concentrated onto one single spot?"
"It does make us look bad," Isaac admitted. "Or it will."
"I hate what time travel does to grammar," Cordelia muttered. She turned to Paradox. "But you know us, Paradox. We're always spread out; this is probably the only time you'll see so many Slayers in one area."
"We know that, but the Plumbers don't," Paradox pointed out. "You also now know that the humans taken over by the Xenocytes are fighting back. With the way your Slayers are programmed they'll just kill them anyway."
"We can't afford a bloodbath," Isaac agreed solemnly.
"So you want us to leave Los Soledad to the kids," Cordelia stated. When Paradox nodded, she told Isaac, "Send a message to Plumber HQ about what's going on. They'll most likely listen to you. I'll start bringing in some scouts so we have a ready army to help the Plumbers. Does that work for you?" She turned to Paradox, but the time traveler was gone.
"I'll take that as a yes."
A few days later
"Why are we doing this again?" Gwen asked as she walked into the kitchen.
"Because it seems like fun," Evan said. The redhead picked at her torn and bloody bridesmaid dress.
"Yes, scaring people in the middle of the night is just loads of fun."
"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't it be?"
"She was being sarcastic," Sam pointed out as she walked in.
"Oh, I know. I was just being Sheldon Cooper."
"Sheldon Cooper is one lab accident away from being a super villain. You're just a kid who's good at planning ahead."
Evan mimed an arrow through the heart. "You're killing me DuBaer!"
Sam rolled her eyes as everyone else came walking in. Carter had obviously taken the liberty of further destroying her outfit, ripping out chunks of the gauzy skirt and adding more blood to her bodice. Ben was looking properly disheveled in his suit, and Kevin…well, it was kind of weird to see Kevin in priest garb, no matter how many tears there were.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're all set to scare Bellwood!" Evan announced jumping out of his seat. He handed a Bible to Kevin, who took it gingerly. "A found some quotes you could use so you could get into character."
Kevin opened the good book and turned to a dog-eared page. "Thanks."
"So what exactly are we doing with this?" Gwen questioned crossing her arms.
Carter gave her a devious little smile. "Oh, you'll see. But first everyone smear this fake blood all over your faces." She held up a small plastic tub of the stuff.
About an hour later
Gwen stumbled over her high heels, running as fast as she could down the sidewalk. She could hear Carter running after her and could vaguely hear the swinging "axe" she was swishing through the air. Kevin was behind her, holding the large Bible under his arm. Gwen bit her "bloody" lip to keep from laughing. What they were doing was mean-spirited, sure, but damned if it wasn't funny.
She could see the convenience store lights up ahead. She threw up a hand, signaling for Carter and Kevin to slow down and for the others to get into position. She could vaguely make out Ben with the video camera, capturing everything.
Someone was coming out of the store, a male in his teen years. She forced out a yelp and stumbled up to him. "Run away!" she cried out.
The boy started and looked at her, confused. "Whaaa-?"
Carter gave an animalistic snarl and stalked closer to them, swinging her bloody axe. Since the boy had no idea that the weapon was fake, his eyes widened and he gave a girlish shriek. His plastic bag fell to the ground as he stood rooted to the ground.
And then Kevin ran up, holding the good book and a vial of "holy water," flinging droplets everywhere. He began to say in a deep, rumbling voice:
"Most glorious Prince of the Heavenly Armies, Saint Michael the Archangel…"
Suddenly Carter began attacking Kevin, swinging her axe like a crazy person. Kevin dodged and went towards the teen rooted to the scene.
"Defend us in our battle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places."
The teen was slowly stirring awake, now aware that a crazy bride was attacking a priest. And that the two were running towards him.
Kevin had skipped through the sermon-no one knew if he was allowed to do that:
"God arises; His enemies are scattered and those who hate Him flee before Him."
Carter had slowed down, slowly swinging her axe in front of her. Kevin had nearly flung the vial of holy water at her, but it was having no effect on her. The teen was practically clutching Gwen, looking ready to faint.
"As smoke is driven away, so are they driven; as wax melts before the fire, so the wicked perish at the presence of God."
Carter was upon them now, baring her white teeth, clashing with the red smeared at her mouth. She lifted the axe-the boy screamed-Gwen smiled-
"Gotcha!" the three pranksters said, breaking out into smiles. The boy who was almost at a dead faint suddenly looked up.
"E…Excuse me?"
Ben chose that moment to walk up with the video camera. "Congratulations; you're going to be famous on the Internet." With that everyone walked away, chattering happily as they left the poor sap alone.
They stopped about a block away, where Kevin had parked the car. Evan was leaning against the hood, looking out of place in his suit. "Nice performance," he said. He nodded his head down the street; it seemed that he had a pretty decent view of the spectacle.
"Whose turn is it next time?" Gwen asked as she took off her heels.
Sam opened the car door. "My turn."
"Then mine," Evan piped up.
"Then mine," Ben said. He and his doppelganger gave a fist bump.
Suddenly something inside Kevin's car beeped. He instantly went to it, leaving the others to fend for themselves. Coincidentally-or not- Evan's phone rang.
"Hello?" Evan answered as Kevin took his own call.
"We're moving the key. We need the Pride at HQ stat." Cordelia ended the call before Evan could get a word in edgewise. He looked at the others sheepishly.
"Yeah, we need to go," he said. The others looked at him.
"Cordelia needs us," Sam explained.
Evan nodded. "We're apparently moving the key."
Carter and Sam groaned audibly when Kevin came back out. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"We have a job," Evan said.
"So do we." Kevin turned to Ben. "Someone wants to meet you."
Ben raised an eyebrow. "Me? Right now?"
"Smells like a trap," Carter deadpanned.
"We should probably check it out anyway." Ben picked at his destroyed suit. "What do we do with this?"
"Well, I want to continue, but I'm guessing after tonight it won't be as fun anymore," Carter admitted. "This sucks, because I put a lot of effort into destroying this dress."
"Where'd you get that anyway?" Gwen asked curiously.
"A few years back Cordelia dressed up as this vampire bride for Halloween," she explained. "She let me have the dress."
"Does she know you destroyed it?"
"What she doesn't know won't hurt me."
Later
Slayer Headquarters was underground and looked suspiciously like the Bat Cave, only a hundred times larger. There were rows and rows of computers along the walls of the cavern, all connected to a single supercomputer. People in suits were milling about, completely unconcerned with the stalactites above them.
The Pride, now garbed in full Slayer gear, waited for Cordelia to show up. They stayed to the sidelines, backs to the walls, hands behind their backs in their usual waiting stance. They watched the computers flicker as geniuses switched past camera after camera, watching the entire world at once.
Finally Isaac showed up, walking briskly past them. "Follow me," he said. The Pride immediately did so, slowing their pace so that they were always behind him.
They walked past the computers and down one of the many tunnels of the hive. Lamps were attached to the ceiling, but they only lit up the center of the tunnel. The sides were still dank. The Pride went in single file to avoid the damp.
Finally, after a long stretch of time, Isaac came upon an elevator inside the tunnel wall. It was old fashioned looking and fancy, like something out of a five-star hotel in the early 20th century. With a wave of his wave the doors slid open without a protest. Isaac stepped in with the Pride walking in after him. With another wave of his hand Isaac forced the doors shut. With a hiss they closed.
And then Isaac took his cane and slammed the butt against the metal floor. Instantly they all moved sideways, the metal frame of the elevator scraping against the sides of the outside. Sparks were flying, the lights inside flickering madly. The Pride held onto the sides for safe keeping, but there was no bar there because the early 20th century didn't particularly care for safety. They were going fast, too fast, they should have died from this speed, why weren't they squished together at the end of the box, nothing made sense.
And suddenly, it ended. The momentum should have killed them, forced them to splatter against the left side of the elevator. But no, the doors slid open with a soft hiss, and Isaac stepped out looking as calm as ever. The Pride fell out of the elevator, their legs refusing to work.
Isaac scoffed. "Amateurs." That set them off. The Pride quickly got their bearings and stood to attention.
"Your orders?" Evan asked sternly.
Isaac gestured in front of them, where the oscillator key was. It was inside another huge cavern, only this one was mainly empty except for the key and the people walking purposefully around it. Even then the key was dwarfed by the sheer size of the cave.
"You along with a few select others will guard the oscillator key until pick up," Isaac told them, all business. "At that point we will send it to Galvan Prime so Azmuth can take a look at it. We've already told him that we plan on tampering with it in the likely case the High Breed get it back. He took it fairly well."
"What do you mean likely?" Carter interrupted him. She knew she shouldn't have, but this time had to be an exception. "There's no way the High Breed can find us."
"Unfortunately DNAlien intelligence is on par with ours," Isaac said gravely. "They may have already found our headquarters and are on their way as we speak."
"That's impossible," Sam said breathlessly.
"Oh, it's very possible," he insisted. A few engineers behind him began their work on the oscillator key. "And right now we have to be ready for any possibility. Don't let me down." With that he left them to go to the other side of the room.
The Pride looked at each other. They were giving each other shocked and horrified looks, but they couldn't really tell through the masks. The only thing they could see was the undiluted fear in each other's eyes. No one had ever found Slayer HQ, much less broke into it. No one. This was the Slayer's safest haven, their refuge. And now aliens were going to barge into it, destroying the place.
If that happened…
The engineers who were tampering with the key worked slowly but surely. They must not have known that someone was about to break into their domain and take the hyperspace key. Though everything changed when the lights in the cavern flashed an ominous red. Isaac was instantly next to the Pride.
"We've been breached," Isaac revealed. The Pride practically keeled over with the news. "Oh don't look so surprised," he said flippantly. "It's not like HQ hasn't been broken into before."
The Pride started. "What?!" they shouted in unison.
Isaac shrugged. "The Romans found it once, the Trojans found it twice, and the Spartan army practically blew it up at one point. Now that was a weird night," he added as an afterthought.
"Yeah, but that was all before Christ," Sam pointed out. "When did HQ get broken into recently?"
"World War II, when the US government and British parliament demanded that they use our radar systems to find the German blitzkrieg," Isaac quickly explained. "Though they only saw what was in D.C. They never did find the other branches."
"I thought there were only three," Evan said incredulously.
"Evan, you should know by now that we're everywhere," Isaac said sardonically. Suddenly a young man appeared beside him. "Status report," he said back to business.
"Sir." The young man took out the papers and quickly scanned them. "The DNAliens have breached the outer security system. First defense has dispatched of sixty percent of their forces, but the rest got in. We have word that their bringing reinforcements."
"Anything else?"
"The rogue forty percent are currently lined up to be dispatched by the second defense," the agent said. "They're currently inside a few select tunnels. Permission to blow them up?"
"Make sure the blasts are nowhere near the rest of HQ when you detonate the bombs."
"Yes sir. One more thing: the DNAliens have three large white aliens with them. We believe them to be the commanding officers of the enemy troops."
Isaac raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure there were three of them?"
The young man nodded. "Yes."
"Kill them like the others. Show no mercy."
"Yes sir." The young man went away to check on the engineers, who were already back to work despite the red gloom.
"Three High Breeds?" Sam gave a low whistle. "They're not messing around this time."
"When do they ever?" Evan pointed out.
"Isaac, you know the humans under DNAlien control are fighting the Xenocyte overwrite," Carter said. "Are you sure this is the best way to go?"
"Carter, this oscillator key is the key to ending the High Breed invasion," Isaac said gravely. "This is bigger than you, than me, than all of us. We need to make sacrifices. And if you recall we only have one man who completely freed himself from the mind control. Unless we have more proof that this is happening to everyone under the Xenocyte control, we take them all out, no exceptions."
"…Understood." She backed down, not only because her grandfather made a very good point, but also because the situation was too dire to continue arguing.
The engineers continued their work as the lights slowly went back to normal. For a second the Pride calmed down. Yes, they were under attack, but the second defense would certainly hold. There was no way the DNAliens would have found any other tunnel down here. There were simply too many of them. The DNAliens would have died down in the tunnels before they found the base.
Except-
The engineers began to patch up the key. Isaac went over them; he and one of the workers got into a heated discussion. With a shake of his head Isaac went over to the Pride.
"The oscillator key is too advanced even for us," he said, obviously miffed. "We'll have to take it to Azmuth to really break it from the inside."
"Isaac, I just thought of something," Sam said suddenly, making them all look at her. "If the DNAliens found a way to the oscillator key, why couldn't they have found another way down here?"
Isaac pondered that for a moment before saying, "Well, they would have to have an extremely good sense of direction. These tunnels go on for miles underground with very little life in them. The DNAliens would have eventually gone mad from being down here. It wouldn't even matter if they were down here for a few days or weeks. They would have been at each other's throats before long."
"But the DNAliens are completely loyal to the High Breed," Sam pointed out. "They would have followed their orders to the last breath. And there are millions of DNAliens out there with control over a seriously powerful intelligence system. Who's to say they haven't been searching for us right under our noses?"
Isaac started, eyes wide. "But they couldn't. That's impossible."
"Isaac, I think they did," Carter said with dawning horror. The Slayer intelligence system wasn't up to snuff. It wasn't as amazing as they were all led to believe. All the surveillance in the world didn't help them with the DNAliens.
"We're screwed," Evan said horrified.
And then the DNAliens burst through the doorways and attacked.
There were hundreds of them, all hissing and screaming. The first defense, the second defense, not even the bombs did anything to decrease their numbers. The reinforcements must have come in fast.
Everyone in the cavern got to fighting. The engineers used their tools to bash brains in. The agents stationed there summoned AK-47s and Tommy guns and other weapons of mass destruction to weed out the mess. The Pride was instantly upon them, using their favorite weapons to cut and shoot through alien bodies. Even Isaac was fighting, splitting himself into five people and using his wizard powers against them.
Three of the Isaacs circled around a large group of DNAliens and turned their canes into wizard staffs. "Cremasses damnati!" he cried, incinerating the DNAliens into dust. The three Isaacs ran with the remaining two to protect the oscillator key.
Suddenly DNAliens started falling through the floor as holes in the ground swallowed them up. The circles then closed, leaving the victims left inside to asphyxiate. Carter turned around to see Evan weave through the enemy army, using quick hand and feet motions to capture different parts of the forces. To combat the ones in front of him, he just punched them in the tentacles.
Carter was using her powers to slice at the enemy, making blood spill so she could use it later as a weapon. The sharp edges of the icicles encircling her fingers glared a deep crimson as she stabbed an alien through the heart. She whirled around in time to grab the throat of another DNAlien and break its neck.
Suddenly arms encircled her, lifting her high off the ground. She flayed her legs, hitting a few aliens in the face before one got its claws in her throat. Searing pain flashed over her neck-she tried to scream, but the claw was slicing at her fragile vocal cords, she could feel the hot blood cascading down her chest, she couldn't scream, she couldn't even whimper, it was too painful OH GOD MAKE IT STOP-
The DNAlien tore its claw out. The other alien let her go. She fell to the ground not moving.
Evan continued to attack using his earth powers, swallowing up DNAliens sporadically. He fell back, stamping his foot and lifting a boulder-sized chunk out of the ground. He hurled it to the middle of the fray, squashing many an enemy alien.
Just when he was about to attack again he felt the cool metal of a gun barrel against his head. He smirked; it was ironic, how he was possibly facing his end by a gunshot. Evan straightened his back and put his hands up.
He whirled around, sweeping the floor with his feet and tripping the DNAlien. He heard hissing behind him-he turned around-there a flash-
Evan fell to the floor writhing in pain, tears welling up in his eyes. Blood welled up at the hole in his leg. A DNAlien was standing before him, a laser gun in his hands.
Sam was gutting a DNAlien when she saw Isaac fight the three High Breeds. He was bellowing out incantations, sending fire and ice and other spells, using all five forms at once. The High Breed certainly had their hands full, but then Sam saw a few DNAliens drag the oscillator key away. The five Isaacs and the engineers couldn't do a thing to stop them.
Sam was having none of that. She made her way over when she heard Evan cry out. She saw him stumble to the floor, his leg bleeding profusely. A DNAlien with a laser gun stood before him. Sam immediately abandoned the key to help him.
And then she saw her, Carter's form lying on the ground. Why was she like that? She should have been fighting, helping Isaac. She'd never get herself too injured to warrant rest during a mission. And then she saw the pool of blood accumulating around Carter's head.
And Sam began to see fire.
It was like a burst of heat and light that resonated through the cavern. Everyone had to stop what they were doing, it was so blinding. But then they all began to move when they felt the intense flames circling around the goddess.
She looked human enough, and athletic. Her deep red toga had slits up both sides, revealing legs with weapons strapped to them. On her sleeveless arms were scars of past battles, proudly shown off. Her face was sharp and with a permanently irritated look on it. But most strikingly was her flaming hair, going down to her waist and writhing as if alive.
But the irritated look on Kirche's face had been turned into one of intense hatred. She took the twin daggers strapped to her thighs and with a ferocious cry threw them both at the enemy. Two streaks of fire followed the blades and when they finally stabbed two of the enemy a bonfire erupted in the cavern.
DNAliens all around the room were running around on fire. They screamed as their flesh burned from their bones, their bones turning into ash and finally crumbling to the ground. It was happening too fast, the screaming and the sickly sweet smell of burning corpses wafting over them and disappearing. And finally they were all gone, DNAlien and High Breed, the fire disappearing with them.
Kirche turned to Isaac, who had shifted from five to one in the blaze. Smoke curled around them all, but the Slayers were all unaffected. The engineers had cuts and bruises but were largely okay. Only the Pride had any grievous injuries.
"What about the key?" Kirche's grizzled voice rang through the cavern. Isaac slowly shook his head. Kirche looked past him to where the hyperspace key once was. It was gone; somehow the High Breed got away with it.
"What about our defenses? How many men do we have left?" Kirche demanded to know, sounding like an experienced war general.
"Only twenty percent of the guards are strong enough to continue fighting," Isaac said, completely defeated.
Kirche took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "We lost then." She suddenly burst in a flash of light, and the goddess turned back into Sam. The girl slumped forward, unconscious. Isaac caught her before she fell.
He could feel the tears even through his jacket.
The reason why Sam turned goddess when she saw Carter was because a normal person can survive being shot. As long as the victim doesn't go into shock they can survive a bullet to the head or heart. But if the victim got hurt in the throat, be it bullet or not, the chances of them surviving are slim if they don't get immediate medical attention. So yeah, Sam has a good reason.
So, thoughts anyone?