Three weeks had passed since Ace had fallen through the dimensional bridge, and nothing new had appeared. It annoyed her to no end, since her hunter's instincts were screaming that something had to be off, and her suspicion towards everyone, even Hank, was beginning to unnerve them. She knew they were irritated by it, but she tried her best to keep it from affecting her dealings with the mutants. She had begun to venture up and even out of the mansion, and although she had begun to get used to the children and their powers, she was still unsettled by having to dodge flying objects whenever she passed a class of telekinetic students, and occasionally also a stray flame or suchlike. She often had to quell the urge to whisper 'Christo' when she encountered one of the children who were more noticeably marked by their mutation, of course, she knew she shouldn't feel that way about it, and she did her best to ignore her instincts, but it was difficult. It had taken her days to get used to Hank, and he was just one case.
She was in the library, where she often found herself, reading up on myth and legend to recreate her vast knowledge on the supernatural. There were not that many differences, and she was relieved that she could at least trust her knowledge to be true, when not much else was. She was interrupted in her studies of a particularly old and dusty volume of the Key of Solomon, when Ororo, also known as Storm, walked in. At first, Ace took little notice of her, just send her a nod in greeting, to absorbed by what she was reading to fully pay attention to what the mutant was here for. However, after some minutes it became evident to Ace's instincts that something was not right. Out of the corner of her eye, she studied Storm closely, careful not to divulge the fact that she was looking at her, and she noticed that the mutant was walking differently, and she was browsing for books in the wrong section. Storm never studied weather patterns.
"Christo." Ace whispered, just loud enough for it to be audible to the other woman. Storm flinched. As she turned to look at the hunter, Ace had already stood up and was heading for the door. She lingered just long enough to see Storm's eyes go black. Well, shit.
Hurrying down the hallway in a rather ungraceful manner, evading unnecessary decorations like pots and half-tables, she heard the door to the library slam open, and the possessed Storm scurried after her, stumbling a few times over the aforementioned decorations, which Ace threw to the floor as she ran, to block the path. She almost made it to the lab when she felt a strong hand grasp her arm, and she turned around, using the force in the spin to propel a fist towards Storm's jaw. It hit her square, and she stumbled enough to allow Ace to break free, open the door and tumble head-first into the lab. The demon was quick, and managed to grasp her ankle, causing her to fall. Hank was sitting by his desk, and great was his shock when Ace was suddenly lying on his floor, Storm holding her down while they tried to land punches at each other.
"Hank!" Ace was silenced when she avoided a punch only by a clever manoeuvre, managing to roll away from the demon. "She's…" She blocked a hit with her arm, and she was pretty sure she would have a fist-sized bruise there for weeks. Ace retaliated with a kick to the demon's stomach, causing it to howl with pain. "… Possessed!" The hunter had only just uttered the word when a strong punch to the side of her head sent her spinning against the wall, where she only just remained standing. The demon-possessed Storm managed to kick her in the ribs, a sickly crack alerted Ace to the fact that some of them had evidently broken, before Hank threw himself at the other mutant, enveloping her in a tight grip, which made her unable to move. Blood dripping from a cracked lip, Ace stood up properly, her right hand pressed against the broken ribs in her left side in an attempt to fight the sharp pain that came with every breath she took.
"The devil's trap, get her under the devil's trap…" The hunter mumbled, wavering on her feet. Damn, that punch to her head had been powerful. She was seeing stars, and something told her she would be out cold in a moment. Hank did as he was told, and the demon stopped struggling the moment it was beneath the binding sigil, rendered powerless. "Tie it… To a chair. I'll… be a moment." Ace managed to stammer, before he black spots in her peripheral vision grew to fill her eyes and her head, and she fell to the ground with a heavy thud. God, Storm was bloody strong.
Hank first did as he had been told, although tying his colleague to a chair under a painted symbol seemed very, very odd to him. When the demon flashed its black eyes though, those feelings subsided. He had to give it to Ace, she was strong. Storm was a very fit and powerful woman, and the hunter had managed to land several punches and kicks that only one skilled with hand-to-hand combat would have any chance of landing. Constantly eyeing the unconscious Ace, he forced himself to focus on the task at hand before he went to her. He had only just finished the last knot when he rushed to her side, lifting her carefully. She whined with pain, but it was an instinctive reaction. He had heard the sound of her ribs cracking, and it was clear to him that she was out cold. The blossoming black eye and bruise on her right cheek were of greater immediate concern to him, seeing as they could potentially be warnings of greater damage done to her skull. After he had placed her on her bed, he carefully felt the wounded spots with nimble, gentle fingertips, and, to his great relief, felt to signs of any greater damage.
He only felt the slightest tinge of embarrassment at having to remove her shirt to bandage her ribs, but as a doctor he blocked that out. This was a medical situation, and he had to handle it as Doctor McCoy, and not Hank. The demon, amazingly, did not interrupt him all this while, but when he stepped away from Ace, his concerned look running over her damages one more time, he was interrupted by Storm's voice.
"You care for her." There was a harshness to her voice that he had never heard before, and he knew that it was the demon. He turned around to face the bound creature with a hard look. The demon-possessed Storm only cackled, throwing her head back in a maniacal laugh. "You care for her so much, oh how it must hurt. Poor, poor beastie." Hank did not respond, but a muscle in his jaw tensed, and the demon noticed it. Another laughter came from Storm's throat, this one dark, cold and humourless. "I'm sorry to tell you, beastie, but she could never love someone like you. A big, furry, blue misfit. Oh no, she would want someone more like herself." When this spurred no reaction from Hank, the demon leaned forward. Or, at least as much forward as her bounds would let her, which was not much.
"Perhaps someone with claws?"
At that, Hank growled, a sound that came deep from his throat, from the Beast within him. He would have jumped at the demon, attacked it, torn it to shreds, just like the demon wanted. But he was interrupted by Ace's weak voice rising from behind him.
"Exorcizamus te, omnis immunde spiritus, omni satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica…" The demon began to squirm against its binds, and the chair screeched across the floor from one side of the perimeter of the devil's trap to another. Ace continued, undeterred.
"In nomini et virtute Domini nostri Jesu Christi, eradicare et effugare a Dei Ecclesia, ab animabus ad imaginem Dei conditis ac pretioso divini…" At this point, the possessed Storm was screaming, heaving for breath and clawing at the armrests of the chair to which it was bound. Her head began to snap first to one side, then the other, up and then down, to violently that Hank was afraid she'd break Storm's neck. The demon's screams almost drowned out Ace's chanting, but her weak voice continued in defiance and determination, with the final words.
"Agni sanguini redemptis."
Ace let her head fall back down on the pillow, exhaling deeply while she fought the sickness that went to her stomach with every move. The demon threw its head back and through Storm's mouth was exorcised in a black cloud that disappeared into the devil's trap, on a one-way ticket to hell. Storm was left bound to the chair, her eyes wide and her mouth open as she gasped for air, recovering her wits for a moment. Then she let out a moan of pain, shaking her head as though trying to clear it. She froze as she realised that she was tied up, and as she lifted her gaze and stared at Hank, her eyes narrowed.
"I was possessed, I presume?" She asked. Hank only nodded, sending Ace a glance before freeing Storm of her bonds at the hunter's urging. "I remember some of it, oddly enough." Storm mumbled, rubbing first her wrists and then her bruised jaw. Ace drew a deep breath, trying to push herself up, but deciding not to when her head began to spin, making her feel even more sick than she already was. "That's… Perfectly normal." She managed to say through teeth that were clenched with pain. "Oh god, you throw some mean punches. No demon's ever… given me a concussion…" She drew a sharp breath as the stinging in her sides increased as she spoke. "… before." Finishing her sentence, she decided no more talking for now. She forced herself to breathe normally, although she winced with every breath. A few broken ribs and a concussion. That could have gone worse.
She didn't even want to think about what might have happened if the demon had possessed Hank.
The blue furred mutant hurried back to her side, examining her carefully, humming with annoyance as she pushed his hands away from her face when he meant to check her pupils. "Concussion." She whispered, wincing with every syllable in the word. He nodded grimly, concerned for her health as a doctor, and for her in general as a person. The demon had been right, of course. He cared. He had realised that.
"Yes, and three cracked ribs. I'm afraid you'll be out of commission for weeks." She winced at his words, mainly because she knew it meant spending said weeks bound to her bed. Now, she didn't much mind the lab, or her bed, or Hank, but weeks? That would set her on edge. But there was simply nothing for it.
She swore, a profanity so creative it made Hank raise his eyebrow at her sudden eloquence.