iCarly: iMeet the Relatives, Chapter 28: Earth's Guardian Demon
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I don't own iCarly
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Chapter 28: Earth's Guardian Demon.
Grif and Devlin were in the very midst of the newest monster to emerge from the Darkness. It appeared to be a living tornado, and so Devlin directed his Hellfire in such a way as to disrupt the normal energy flow of such a phenomenon. Grif charged for the very center, his sword cutting straight through the whirlwind, reaching for the center of the thing.
There was some sort of field surrounding that center, and he encountered resistance. Still he hacked away at it, reluctant to Speak against it, for fear of affecting any mortals in the area.
Suddenly, his sword was seized by some force, and the light blazing from it seemed to diminish somewhat. But he was ready for it this time.
He suddenly drew in the power he'd channeled to the sword, and focused it into a tight swirl of incandescence around the blade. Then, he flew in, and, while Devlin poured his Hellfire into the creature from the bottom, he channeled his power into it from above.
The two forces, mutual opposites, conducted through the aether like a lightning bolt, only a million times more powerful. The creature screamed a shrill scream of agony as the charge went through it. It fell back.
Then both Grif and Devlin heard a voice in their minds: Why do you hurt us? We only want to live. In spite of being ready for just such a tactic, Grif nonetheless felt a pang of sympathy for the creature. Living beings of any sort didn't just arise from the Darkness; whatever was there came from somewhere else. Whatever these creatures were now, they had once been people…
"Careful, angel!" shouted Devlin, as he directed a blast of Hellfire into the thing's middle. Grif followed suit immediately, aiming directly for the spot from which he'd heard the "voice." Thrashing and wailing, the only-half-visible whirlwind began to dissipate.
The two Immortals stood a ways off from it, making sure of the thing's demise. "I thought for a moment there, you were actually going to give the monster a chance, angel."
Grif shook his head. "I won't say I wasn't tempted. I'd like to believe there's something in these beings, something not completely beyond redemption. But I wasn't about to let it endanger anyone else. Especially those we," and here, he shot a glance at the demon, "care about."
Devlin grunted. "Well, anyway, I suppose-*
{{Grif! It's me, Carly! Spencer just called, and something's happening downtown, at that garage! He said Jillian had gone to investigate!}}
Grif thought. How…? {{Carly, how are you able to talk to me like this?}}
{{Uncle Jemiah's boosting my thoughts. I doubt I'd get through otherwise; there's some powerful electromagnetic disruptions going on. But he said she's in danger!}}
{{Hang on, Carly, we're on our way.}} Aloud, to Devlin: "That was Carly. Something's happening at that garage where Brittney's apartment was supposed to be. She said Jillian went to investigate it."
Devlin rolled his eyes and sighed, theatrically. "We're doomed."
Seattle: Against numberless hordes of inhuman monsters, Jillian Adara stood alone.
The mortal authorities had long since learned the hard way that their weapons had no effect on whatever these things were, and had withdrawn to a completely useless perimeter just in front of the hospital, which was even then being evacuated. But many of the patients couldn't be so easily moved, and some not at all, particularly those heavily dependent upon various life support measures. If they can't move 'em, that'll soon become academic, thought the demon girl, as she moved to attack. Best defense…
Her declaration, about being Earth's guardian demon, had not intimidated any of the invading horde. In fact, she could literally feel their anger and hatred focus and magnify on her as they moved to form ranks. Odd to see troops of varying time periods and various nationalities synchronizing so perfectly, so effortlessly.
But what was even more odd, and more disturbing, was the strange way their emotional "signatures," what few emotions they had left, also all seemed to fall into perfect sync with each other. To Jillian, with her senses, it was pretty obvious they were no longer individual beings.
And there must be thousands of them. Tens of thousands.
So she dodged and weaved, Hellfire alternately blasting away at their ranks, and being used as a temporary shield, with the tines of her trident itself catching one and sending him crashing into several others. They, too, became cinders under a concentrated stream of Hellfire. She charged her feet with Hellfire, and, planting the haft of her trident in the ground, spun in a circle, producing an expanding ring of energy that drove them back…but only momentarily. She roundhouse-kicked several, while balancing herself by projecting fire from her hands in the opposite direction. She was far stronger than any fifteen of them…..but they just kept on coming. Fearlessly. Mindlessly.
I've gotta protect that hospital behind me, she thought to herself. Spencer would want her to. Home, Roger might be in there, for all she knew. And here she was, fighting a creature of one mind and thousands of bodies; she had to make sure she didn't let any of them slip behind her and either get past her to other targets or attack her from that direction. These beings might look like many, but they acted as one, the way fire ants did. The individual didn't matter; they attacked as one being. But that didn't mean they only attacked one being. But I'm only a lava pit guard! I can't fight the Darkness!
But…but there's nobody else…
I can't let them get past!
If only I had some sort of weapon of mass destruct-* wait. I do. And she dropped the concealing illusion that made her eyes look like normal human eyes…and let her Hellgaze sweep over the hordes.
The results were mixed. Most of the oncoming thralls virtually exploded into fire, while others suddenly withered into mummy-like forms in the space of a heartbeat. But about half of them kept coming, in spite of her continued 'gaze, seemingly unaffected by it. Since nothing that lived could look a demon in the eyes and keep on living, she supposed these beings must've had no life to disrupt.
No matter. That still reduced the number of her opponents, and she jumped back into the fray.
Her supernatural hearing picked up conversations, words spoken from the windows of the hospital behind her: "…who's that?" "What's going on?" "…girl doing anyway?" What are those…Greek hoplites…samurai…" "…must be some sort of role playing game, or, or re-enactment…" "…you crazy or sumpim'? Re-enactment with real fire? How you get that?" "Who's the super girl?" "…super cute girl, you mean…" "…'S'gotta be some new show on Netflix…" "Quick, man, Google this up, gotta know who she is…" Stupid mortals, didn't they know when they needed to run?
And then she overheard another comment from some stupid male that made even her blush. Fella, if I live through this, I'm gonna hunt you down an' burn your yang-yang off.
An entire battalion fell before her as her trident strafed several more, and, while using the flame as cover, she levitated up onto piece of concrete for a better view, especially wanting to make sure nothing more slipped through that shimmering in the air she'd seen. She'd recloaked her eyes, just in case some fool human might be out here, and was preparing to Hellgaze the entire crew…
….When what felt like a small planet hit her from behind and in front, simultaneously.
Things went dark.
Grif and Devlin reached the outskirts of Seattle within minutes. Without a word, they zeroed on the garage that, as far as anyone knew, corresponded with Brittney's apartment complex in her world.
The tableau that met them was almost stunning, even to them.
For what seemed like blocks, in all directions, buildings had been reduced to rubble, with parts of them still glowing from Jillian's Hellfire. They saw the shimmering in the air, from which the undead hordes emerged. Saw Jillian holding her own against them, not letting any of them get passed her to the hospital. Saw her levitate up, for a better perspective. And saw the two darkly shimmering blobs of something slam her between them, and saw her unconscious body tumble down into the rubble.
"Come on," said Grif, needlessly. Devlin had already charged his trident. Both raced to the scene, and dove into the fray….
Jillian's eyes opened reluctantly. She really didn't want to see what it was like to be a Darkness thrall. And she'd just lost the battle, so that was the only thing she could possibly be, surely.
But aside from aches and pains Immortals don't usually have, she felt the same. Somebody's hand was up under her head, holding her up. "Jillian? Jillian, wake up!" It was Spencer's voice. Spencer was here in the Darkness? Maybe things wouldn't be so bad…. "Uh. W-what…"
"Come on, wake up. We gotta get you to someplace a little safer." She woke up, to see Spencer—the real Spencer, not a Darkness version of—crouched beside her, holding her head.
"S-Spencer? W-what the Home are you doing here?"
"Trying my best to save your ass. Now come on!" He urged her to sit up. "Call me peculiar, but I just feel like it's an ass worth saving. So come on, work with me here."
The aches and pains receded as she drank in his emotions. For some reason, she was still terribly weak. "H-how did you get….?"
"I hitched a ride." He cocked a thumb as a winged figure, whose sword was flashing as she bit into the hordes of Darkness thralls. "Maggie offered me a lift."
"You…you shouldn't be here! Stupid mortal! You'll get yourself killed, or, or worse!"
"Yeah, but…." He looked up, past her, and suddenly let her drop as he jumped up, grabbing her trident in one smooth move, and impaled a thrall on the end. She snapped around in time to catch the thrall's expression as it died: no pain, no fear, just anger that it had been denied its prey.
Spencer pulled the trident out of the rapidly decaying body, and handed it to her. "Here, you can make better use of this than I can. All I can do is spear 'em. Come on, get up. How are you feeling?"
She got to her feet, the conflict around her momentarily forgotten, and stared at him. "Spencer? What did you just do?"
"What, get you awake and up? Or the zombie thing?"
"The zombie thing."
He shrugged, all the while keeping his eyes out for more threats. Between Maggie, Grif, and Devlin, the hordes of thralls were being steadily beaten back. "All I could do. I don't know how to make one of those things spout fire, so all I could do was-*"
"No, no….Spencer, how did you pick up my trident?"
"Er…by the grip?"
She stared, open mouthed, at him. "Spencer, you don't understand. That trident is charged with fire from Home. You should've been vaporized!"
"Is that important right now? Come on, for Christ's sakes! We've gotta get outta here!
"You mean YOU'VE gotta get out of here! Spencer, I…" And she stopped, the battle in the background momentarily taking a back seat. "Spencer. Look. There's some thing's we'll need to talk over, yes, I know, but, for now…this is my job. You've done your part. Now go on! Get to safety! I'm alright now, I'm fine." Her pains had finally succumbed to the flood of emotions washing over her from him, and she felt herself restored. "I told those creeps I was Earth's guardian demon." She turned and squared her shoulders, looking at the battle. "Time I put that into practice." And she rejoined the fray.
The thralls were finally pushed back into the spacial warp where they'd emerged from, and the Immortals were conferring among themselves, determining the best way of sealing this portal. "Here," said Devlin, at last, and levitated tons of rubble and rebar-laced concrete over and around the shimmering nothingness, until it was effectively imprisoned. "Until we know how to disperse these things, something like this will have to do."
Maggie approached Jillian. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine, angel. Why'd you bring Spensie—I mean, Spencer here? He could've been killed!"
"It was either that, or he'd come on his own. When he saw where you were, and what was going on, there was no holding him back. Plus I figured you needed him here. Didn't you?"
"Don't try to patronize me! I hate it when that happens!" She fought to bring her temper under control. This wasn't the time for a full-scale confrontation. "You could 'a got an innocent killed! I thought you angels were above that sort of thing."
"Evidently we're not." Was that just a small hint of amusement on Maggie's face? "Anyway, it worked." She looked around. "Now, what's our next move?"
Jillian shadowcloaked back to the Shay apartment, and stormed into Spencer's room. She closed the door and leaned against it, breathing heavily, as though she'd just run a marathon. He looked up at her. "You okay?"
"How did you do that?"
"What, the trident thing? I told you: I don't know. It's just, while you were out, I used it to stick a couple of 'em, that was all. I couldn't make it shoot fire."
"It's like I told you, Spencer, a demon's trident is charged with Hellfire. No mortal should be able to touch it. But you did." She came over and looked at him, very carefully. "Are you sure you're mortal?"
He looked back at the illusion of her hazel eyes, complete honesty in his voice or expression. "Of course I am. Why?"
"I just told you-* Oh, grief. It doesn't matter." She sagged down on the bed, suddenly feeling tired. "Couldn't even do that right." She lay back across the bed, arms to either side, her hair fanning out across the
"Huh? What're you talking about?"
"'Earth's guardian demon.' Hah! What was I thinking? I couldn't guard a trash can."
He lay back next to her. "Jillian. There you go again. You were great out there; I saw the videos somebody shot while I was on the way there. I mean, you were fantastic! There must've been like, what, ten thousand of those…things out there? And you were holding your own. None of them got past you. The only way they did get to you was that, whatever it was, when apparently the Darkness took a direct hand in the battle. But until then, you were a one-woman tank battalion. You were awesome. No, more than that. You were beyond awesome."
"I was pathetic."
"Were not."
"Was, too."
"Were not."
"Was, too."
"Were not."
"Was, t—mmMMMPH!" He'd silenced her by closing his lips over hers. When they broke apart, he began pulling her towards the bathroom. "Wh-wait, what are you doing now?"
"You're all dusty from falling down out there in the rubble. Let's get you showered off. And after that," he said, with a wicked smile, "I think somebody, somebody who's literally hell on wheels in a fight, has earned herself a backrub."
Once again, she discovered the easiest way to get rid of temptation is to surrender to it.
…
"So how do we deal with these manifestations, these portals?" Devlin asked. The group, Maggie included, had returned to the Columbia Building, and were conferring in Jemiah's office. Brittney had once again virtually attached herself to Devlin, to the latter's dismay. Grif smirked.
Jemiah shook his head, his expression solemn. "We've yet to come up with a way. That spacial warp that BenDarian's people found beneath Mt. Adam probably holds the key. Lines of chaos reach from it to several points around the globe. But where it originated, that we don't know."
"Mr. Jemiah, sir?" Brittney spoke up, for the first time. She was a little intimidated by the archangel. Carly couldn't blame her. "Could…could this warp thing have come from my world?"
Jemiah shrugged. "It's possible, but not very likely. Usually, the technology necessary to create such self-contained and –sustaining warps is orders of magnitude above anything any human world is capable of. And there certainly, would be no reason for any human world to do such a thing, at least, none that I can think of."
"I can," said Darian BenDarian. "I can think of several. It may be that the…people, or ruling faction on the world beyond this warp had come to an arrangement with the Darkness, and now seeks to deliver this world to it, as per the terms of the agreement. What they would get out of it, is unknown. Or, conversely, it could be that world itself was promised to the Darkness for some reason, and now seeks an alternate world to take its place in the debt. We demons have run into that, quite frequently. Humans can be very adept at sneaking past the fine print on contracts. Or, as was suggested, perhaps the powers that be on that other world simply wish to see what would happen, should a world slide downward, into the Darkness. As an experiment. And there are several more such scenarios."
"Hey," said Sam, "Where's Jillian? Shouldn't she be here? I mean, top level meeting, an' all…."
Darian BenDarian snorted. "'Earth's guardian demon,' indeed."
"Actually, uncle, she did fairly well, all by herself, all things considered," said Devlin, surprising even himself. The others stared. "Well, she did hold them back until reinforcements could arrive. Could any of us have done better, at her power level?"
"Don't tell me you're taking up for her, nephew."
"I only refer to the easily verifiable facts, uncle. You must admit, she accomplished her self-appointed task."
"Hmph."
"Mr. Jemiah?" Carly, "I'm curious. Has this sort of thing ever happened before? Anywhere?"
Jemiah closed his eyes in pain. "Yes. Yes, actually, it has."
To be continued…
