Ch 6
The terrorist attack on the concert in Paris was one of the worst in history. Instead of a single, or a few terrorists, there were many who caused traffic accidents, killed police who were set out for security and had a communications device to put a loud squech over police and military bands, making coordination difficult. The police did fight hard but a dozen terrorists got inside to slaughter hundreds of young people. The battle lasted hours, and only few of the innocent who were inside found safety. Those who did, hid under the corpses of their friends while the slaughter raged. The accidents fouled traffic, making it hard for the French to respond. Before it was over, the army had to be called in to put down the terrorists. Not one terrorist surrendered, they kept killing until they, themselves were killed.
When they got to the abyss, their hatred was strong enough to raise more demons. That was one thing the devil liked about demons. No matter how many failed him, he was always able to make more.
.
Chris Tappen had gotten the kids to bed and snuggled with Nana. Tired from the day's work, Nana fell asleep. Chris slowly rubbed her back (something Nana loved) until she was deep asleep cuddled up to him.
Chris himself couldn't sleep. As a man of God as well as a Witch, he felt he should be the one finding, or at least helping to find the place where these demons were coming from! All he did was look over the list of places Matsu was sending people to look at to see if they could find this gateway to the abyss.
The list was not just a sheet of paper with names. It was a pile of paper, each sheet showing a picture of the place, the information, as well as who went and what they found. In these lists were also places that had been ruled out by someone going there and looking.
Just going through all this information was tiring. Chris looked at page after page praying for a revelation to come to him.
The word stuck. For some reason, Chris kept thinking about a revelation. Every page he looked at, he was looking for a revelation. He tried to clear his head and just focus on that he was reading.
One picture he looked at was the remains of what may have been a church. It was in a countryside setting, in fact there was a white horse in the picture near the church. "The White horse is here," he said absently. That too stuck with him.
Going through more possible places he found another that had been checked out. In this picture of a church building in a town that was never completed, he saw a tavern next door. The sign bore a carving of a Red horse. A Red Horse.
'What's with the horses?" he thought. Were they his revelation?
Feeling he might be onto something, Chris looked at all the places that had been visited with no signs of a portal. After he finished that stack, he moved on to a few places that had been looked at, but no one had physically gone there.
Matsu was very organized in her paperwork.
The second one he looked at was a place Matsu had scrawled a message on.
'Yukari scried over this place, but I looked at it with a satellite map, and the hill she claims was protected by magic, isn't there. Possibly she got the wrong place.'
"Maybe because it's protected by magic?" Chris asked himself. He then got to the name.
Megiddo.
Chris froze. The images and words stuck in his head came flowing out. Megiddo, a white horse, a red horse. Revelation. Not the idea, the book of Revelation! White and Red, the first two of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Armageddon! He felt weak, Armageddon was coming, half the horsemen were here, now! It has already begun!
"Oh God," Chris cried weakly. The death, destruction and the Final Battle was not some far away thing to be theorized and talked about, it was beginning. Here and now. He gripped the paper in his shaking fists. He'd wanted to know about a gate from hell, and now he knew. Chris felt weak from what he'd discovered. It all made sense. He wanted to pray, he wanted to pray and tell God, NOT NOW! He have a lovely wife and two small girls. Why bring the hammer down on them and ruin the lives of their little girls?
The paper blurred as he looked at it. Chris didn't even feel the tears that made their way down his cheeks. He could barely breathe, his vision started to fade. With the enormity of what he discovered, combined with the lack of sleep, Chris passed out and tumbled to the floor.
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Adam Pierson had been around long enough. It was time to change his name again. Recently the years just seemed to be slipping by him. He'd kept this name for fifty three years now. It was time for a change.
Adam went through the routine smart immortals used. He went through city files and looked for a kid that had died very young, or at birth. Such a thing was rare now, but it still happened. Going though the Los Angeles files he found one. A baby who'd died in a car accident 20 years ago. Perfect..
"David Weller. Nice name," he said and went to the births section and found David's birth certificate and copied it. Hanging around the clerk's desk, he waited until they went to lunch then slipped behind the counter and stamped it 'Verified copy' and left.
A new name meant a new home. He went to Las Vegas where his bank was. It was a pain getting cashiers checks to write his old names, then his new one, then red positing the money in a new bank. He had money in other banks as well in Europe, and a Swiss account. They would all have to be changed. Some things just could not be helped.
Once David got his banking done, he paid to have his new ID made with David's social security number on it. He then got himself a hotel room while he searched for an apartment.
David was surprised when he felt a presence. Sitting up, he didn't think it was an immortal. He grabbed his sword anyway.
A knock sounded at the door. He peeked out to see a platinum blond woman in a skimpy, tight dress, and made up like she was soliciting. He put the chain on the door and cracked it open.
"May I help you?" he asked.
A wavering of air came from her eyes. "Open the door, Methos," she said in a sexy tone.
Something was wrong, he felt it, but he did as she asked, not being able to resist.
The woman came in and plucked the sword out of his hand and threw it on the window side bed. Casting him a sultry smile she shut the door then guided him to sit on the other bed while she sat on the bed with the sword, blocking him from it.
"What are you?" he managed to get out.
"My name is Cruella, and I am greatly disappointed," she said. "Aren't you suppose to be one of the horsemen?" she asked in a sweet tone.
He swallowed. "How can you know that?" he asked.
"Because I was sent to correct your mistake. Methos! You were all set up to be the great conqueror! Riding your white horse and battling through the ages to make others fall to your feet!" she said. "Don't you remember, 'there can be only one?" she asked. "You were set up to be that one. You and your brothers were suppose to be the Four Horsemen, killing and gaining strength all through the ages. You got soft, and decided you didn't want the job. You hid yourself away. That is being a bad boy, Methos," she ended in a chide.
Methos lunged up to grab his sword. He was stopped by her hand then pushed back to sit. She then got up and pushed him down to lay on the bed. Casting him a wide grin as she straddled him, she said in a coo, "Would you like one last good tumble before I take your head? I am going to take your job, so I think that is the least I can do."
"You won't get away with it. Leave now and you can save yourself," he stated, trying to sound firm.
"I will succeed for I will be the Horseman you refused to me. You want a fuck, or not?" she asked.
Methos didn't reply.
"Fine," she said, "At lest give me a goodbye kiss." She bent down and kissed him on the lips.
Methos couldn't stop himself from kissing her. His eyes went wide as he felt energy flowing out of him from between his lips. Quickening flowed like lightning from him into her. All he was able to do was struggle weakly in shudders as she drained his energy. He felt himself weakening, his limbs went numb. He then felt something sharp at his throat.
Once she had sucked every but of life energy from him, she cut his throat deep, her nail scraping but not quite cutting through his neck bones. She the grabbed his head and pulled it the rest of the way off. There was a small light show, but not enough to even break the windows. Seeing a waste can, she tossed his head in.
The demon got up off the corpse and told the dead man, "You're fired. I'm the White Horseman now, and I will do my job." She left the hotel room, leaving the door open.
She had a job to do in Beijing.
.
Tsukune got Kurt's message that the demon in Beijing had been found and destroyed. One more small success. In the mean time, knowing these demons were around, he had Ruby fortify the Sotoba Valley with the magic to detect the presence of a demon. Although no demons were in Japan at all, he wasn't taking any chances. They might not be here now, but it was only a matter of time before they tried something. Although one had yet to be found in the middle east, Tsukune was sure there was one there someplace. John and Ageha had found the one in California, and were heading to Las Vegas where another one was suspected to be.
Walking down the hall from his office, Tsukune saw Mizore coming towards him.
Mizore walked up to him, clasped his hand and said, "Come sit and pet me. Relaxing."
Tsukune winced at her. "Mizore, I have many things to do…"
"No," Mizore said firmly. "You always have many things to do. You have people to do them. All of us are getting no attention. Even Moka is becoming frustrated with no attention. If you even look at Kurumu, she is sure to strip down and grab you. Come relax."
Mizore was right, he hadn't relaxed since he'd found out about Akemi being in trouble. By cycling about in constant worry, he was making sure things were being done. He was also ignoring his wives. He nodded and let Mizore lead him downstairs.
Coming down the stairs, he saw Chris come in. "I need to talk to Tukune now," he told Minori.
Minori shut the front door, asking "What is it?"
"Father Tappan, something wrong?" Tsukune asked. The man looked stricken.
"It's coming," Chris said as he strode over to meet Tsukune and Mizore at the foot of the stairs. "The Apocalypse is at hand! The final Battle, Armageddon, it's coming!" he cried in a stressed voice.
Tsukune studied him. Obviously, Chris believed what he was saying. "How do you know?"
"I saw the warning signs. There are Four Horsemen. Two, the white and the red, are already here. There is a hill in Israel, Megiddo. The gate to open into the abyss is there. That is the place of Armageddon, where it will start and end. Yukari found it but she didn't know what to look for," Chris said in his stressed tone.
Chris looked pale. Tsukune asked, "If Yukari shows you that place, can you find that gate?"
Chris nodded. "Yes, let me look at it as soon as possible."
Tsukune hugged Mizore one armed and cast her a sympathetic smile. "Petting has to wait. We need to go see Yukari."
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Tommy, Azami, Uzume and Haihane stood on a road looking at nothing. Jade insisted there was a hill here.
"Jade, there's nothing here," Tommy called back through the portal.
"There is, right in front of you," Jade called back.
"This is Matsu's fault," Azami grumbled. "Jade, I sense nothing!" she called.
"Just … face west and walk!" Jade cried.
Tommy let out a huff and walked off the road like Jade told him. Two steps and he was walking on the road again. "What?" he asked and looked back.
"Walk straight, dummy," Azami chided. She walked off the road and found her self walking towards Tommy. She stared at the rolling hills to the west. "What gives?" she grumbled. She picked up a small rock and tossed it to the west. The rock hit Tommy ahead of her.
"Hey!, what was that for?" Tommy cried as he held his head.
Haihane pointed and laughed at them.
Uzume flashed into her fighting outfit of long white cloths. She reached out with a cloth. It tried to turn, she forced it off the road. It stopped. "There is something here," she said firmly.
Jade's voice said, "It's a magic barrier, a strong one too. I can't see past it."
"This might be what we're looking for," Azami noted, "How can we be sure?"
"I got an idea," Tommy said. He went off the road the other way, then raced at the invisible barrier. When he hit the road he jumped up high in the air. They watched him tumble land out on a hill.
"Ouch," Uzume said in a wince, and rubbed her shoulder.
"Walk back this way," Azami called.
Tommy did. One step he took was very long, like he suddenly raced at the road. Now he was on it. He looked back and said, "That was weird."
Yukari's voice called, "All you kids, move away, go back to Jade, NOW!"
Yukari sounded worried. They hurried back through the portal. Right after they got through, there was a bright flash as a blinding white sphere appeared where they had been. Jade closer her portal.
"What the.." Tommy asked.
"Someone tried to destroy you," Jade said. "If you hadn't come back, whoever did that might have gotten you."
"Someone doesn't want us there," Azami said. "We should go back and find out who."
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Nilrem looked down from the summit of the hill. The empty eye sockets of his skull not showing any emotion. A skeletal hand on his staff, he saw his targets were gone. His annihilation sphere missed the ones who'd been poking around the base of the hill. None bore any great magic and were no threat, but he had sensed the portals also. Whoever that was, was looking for a way in. Something he could not allow.
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Yukari closed her portal quickly after she saw Haihane, the last one, disappear into Jade's portal. She immediately made a portal to Jade. "Jade, is everyone all right?"
"Yes, they got back in time. Who was that?"
"Whoever it was, is very strong in magic. Do not go near there again until we are ready," Yukari told her, then closed her portal.
"That was the place," Chris said firmly. "I felt the evil there. It was, immense. It must be destroyed."
"What do we need to get rid of it?" Tsukune asked.
"An atomic bomb, maybe?" Mizore asked.
Everyone frowned at her.
"Tsukune," Chris said evenly. "We will need strong magic and strong, unwavering faith. That is the only way to break that barrier. Even then, it is going to be a hard fight once we gain access onto that hill. I must go, but I must have others with me. It will take a combined effort to get in and get to that portal. I'll need everything you can give me."
"Tell me when you're ready," Tsukune said. "If you can tell me by ability what we need, that will be vital also."
Chris nodded solemnly. "I cannot make portals, I need to borrow someone who can take me where I need to go. I must gather as many faithful as I am able to, as well as every witch I can find, to start with. First, I must pray for guidance."
Thinking of the only other witch he knew of that had a solid defense and wasn't currently searching for demons, Tsukune said, "Yukari, find Mariko, see if she will help Father Tappan."
.
Once Father Tappan was on his way, Tsukune contacted the Japanese government to inform them of what he knew. There was no crises in Japan yet, but he wanted everyone to be warned. He then called Bianca at the UN and told her to warn all nations of what was coming.
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Cruella went to Beijing knowing there were people on the looking for demons. She collected a couple more Succubi and ten Hellions to hunt down these demon killers while she took care of business.
Visiting The new Communist Party Chairman in his bed, she gave him pleasant dreams and good sex as she charmed him. She also impressed upon him the need to wipe out the yokai in his country that were causing such trouble.
Casting her a loving gaze, the Chairman said, "My love, the yokai are too strong! Their army has been defeating ours and taking more and more land."
Cruella smiled and petted his face as she said, "My dear puppet, do not attack the pawns openly. You need to cut off the head of the beast. By cunning and deceptive. I have a plan for you. Do it well and you will enjoy pleasures like you have never known, As well as be a hero to your people. Don't worry, I shall assist you in your glorious rise."
.
Fang-Fang learned the Chinese troops had stopped fighting. They still held a long line, but were no longer showing aggression. He then received a message that the Chairman has ordered a cease fire, and wanted a meeting to discuss peace talks.
Knowing it was foolishness to go himself, he decided to send Ling-Ling and a general, with some yokai guards to meet with the Chinese delegation. He send a message back, agreeing to the cease fire and peace talks. Although his was a good sign the conflicts may indeed be over, he was still wary.
.
Cruella kept a close watch on the other two Succubi. Both were visiting Party officials and charming them to into believing that all yokai must be destroyed. One she had moving about to keep from being discovered. The other, she had on a routine, waiting for her to be discovered. Lilith had a daily routine, being picked up by guards and spending the day around many people to come return home at night, alone. Well, alone except for the four Hellions hidden in her house.
Coming home one afternoon, Lilith found a man outside by the street, trying to fix the broken chain on his bicycle. It was a normal enough scene. She listened closely. He whispered, "She coming in."
Lilith smiled. She walked at an easy pace to the front door. The door was locked. That meant Hellions had found someone in the house. She unlocked the door to find two men dead on the floor with a Hellion standing over them.
The Hellion pointed to her bedroom. More were in there. Going out the back door, she listened for signs of humans. Not hearing an, she went invisible and walked quietly to her bedroom window and looked in. A faint glow came from behind her dresser. A man was crouched there, holding a pistol on the door. Over the door, a bucket had been balanced.
Lilith smirked. She teleported in behind the man and grabbed his gun. "For me?" she asked in a sultry tone.
The man yelped out and spun to gape at her.
"You love me," she said in a hypnotic tone as she charmed him.
"I … will do anything for you," he said as his face shown with love and devotion.
"Who is here , and who do you work for?" she asked sweetly.
Besides the two dead men and the lookout fixing his bike, there was a driver for the getaway and another down the street that warned them she was coming. He was working for his Master, Fang-Fang, but a couple men belonged to another group.
Lilith thanked him for the information, then had him take the bucket down and dump it down the toilet. She then rewarded him by kissing him deeply and draining his life force. She let his body fall to the floor and went out to find the driver and the other scout.
Charming the driver of the van, she had him pick up both scouts, She charmed each as they got in. Once both were in she took their lives with a long life stealing kiss. The driver took her back to their base of operation, which was a plain house on the outskirts of the city. Once she tanked the driver with her deadly kiss, she went inside and used her long nails to swiftly kill two other men and three women. She destroyed computers and stacked the paper files she found on the bodies. Making a ring with the stuffed chairs and a couch in the center of a room, she breathed in the pile to start a fire. The flames grew quickly and hot. She teleported home to get rid of the bodies there.
It would be a while before anyone else came to spy on them.
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Israeli soldiers had regained the Golan Heights and were deep in Palestine, routing out the last of the rebels and fighting other factions that had sprung up to fight them. In the eastern Mediterranean, a US ship was torpedoed by an Iranian submarine. That submarine was sunk in return and escalated the war. Iran and the US were now unofficially at war with each other. Iraq declared neutrality, but let Iranian forces flow west. Shells and missiles flew back and forth, planes dotted the skies, ones hit burned and fell. Syrian planes joined the fight causing US missiles then planes to bombard them, which got Russia involved. Turkey shot down a flight of Russian planes in their airspace and attacked Syria. Russia attacked Turkey. And the war just kept getting bigger.
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Cruella made sure the Chairman's plan was going well. A building was built in between the Yokai and Chinese lines. What all the troops watching didn't know, was that the block foundation was being filled with explosives as the walls went up. Besides plastic explosives. Phosphorous and magnesium charges were also added to greatly increase the heat of the detonation.
While the place for the meeting was being built, two Chinese planes were being loaded with nuclear tipped bombs while far to the north in Tibet, a large armored army was getting into position to head south when they got the word to attack.
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Pakistan was slowly loosing ground to the Indians. Their ally, China was not helping at all. They send out a loud warning that unless India stopped fighting, they would release nuclear weapons on them.
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In the UN, calls to stop the fighting were ignored, except by Pakistan and India. At first, India declared they would nuke Pakistan off the map if they saw a single warhead coming their way. Bianca did coax then into a cease fire and got their governments to sit down and talk.
China refused to listen and warned all countries about the danger of yokai. The Chinese representative told about how yokai had attacked innocent people, and were now killing thousands and laying waste to Chinese countryside and cities.
Israel announced they had every right to defend themselves and were not going to talk to anyone until the attacks against them stopped.
Iran insisted Israel were US backed criminals, and would not stop until every Jew was pushed into the sea and the US infidels was driven from the area.
At their desk, Bianca and Morgan listened to the rhetoric. Morgan shook his head sadly. "As least you got Pakistan and India to stop fighting," he said.
"They realized this is getting serous," Bianca told him. "Something most of these others have yet to realize."
It was then the Taiwan representative, took his turn to speak. "We in Taiwan are sorely saddened and disappointed by our mainland brothers. They ask we join into this … travesty they have brought down upon themselves. Instead of seeing benefit, they see threat from yokai, and have declared war on them. Taiwan has a population of yokai, and they live in society as beneficial citizens. I call on our mainland brother to stop this aggression and stop the bloodshed! Until our mainland brothers come to their senses, we can no longer do business with them. I am asking in the strongest terms possible for our brothers to cease this devastating civil war."
Japan was next up and also demanded China stop the civil war and come to the peace table, or they too would sanction China, except for the province of Taiwan.
Surprisingly, the US and Russian delegates got up to the podium together and called for a halt to all the fighting.
"As my American counterpart will also tell you," The Russian delegate said firmly. "We are risking our very planet with this outbreak of madness! I call on Israel and all countries to pull back within their borders and come to the peace table. Yes, we have reacted to protect our interests as the Americans have. We both see nothing but more escalation unless a halt is called to the fighting. Pakistan and India have agreed to work out their differences. I am calling for everyone else to do so, also."
The American delegate took his turn. "My honorable Russian counterpart has spoken wisely. To add to what he has told you, America and Russia are already in talks with each other and our allies to stop the fighting. Not only in the Mideast, but also the civil war raging in China. We have also agreed to support sanctions on every country that will not come to the table to discuss peace talks. We are on the verge of world war three, and it will be a disaster for all if that happens."
"Well at least someone is trying to stop this madness," Bianca said with a sigh.
.
Ling-Ling went to the newly build 'peace hall' with her small delegation. Two carloads if Chinese representatives had arrived just before them. They greeted each other and sat on opposite sides of the table to begin bringing the conflict to an end.
Cruella stood in the control room beside the Chairman as they watched the delegation enter the building. Everyone in here he'd Charmed to ensure this went s planned.
"Launch the bombers," she whispered to the Chairman. He repeated her order. She smiled as she watched the bombers take their long way around to come at Lhasa and Fang-Fang's mountain from the west at supersonic speeds. As they neared their targets, they launched their missiles and quickly banked away.
"Blow the peace house," she ordered.
With all the delegates inside, the building disappeared into a bright fireball that sent visible shock waves out at both lines. Cruella chuckled darkly. This should cause some havoc. "And now, Beijing," she said with a grin.
The Hellion that was in a high rise with the biggest nuclear warhead China had, hit the red button detonating the device and blowing him back to the Abyss. The near-ground explosion didn't reach as far as designed, but it did vaporize much of the city and flattened the rest of it to leave nothing but smoldering, radioactive ruins.
.
Ling-Ling's world suddenly turned white. She felt her body being ripped apart and burned to a crisp. Squinting her eyes shut, she felt herself flung into the air. Her head landed and bounced on the ground a few times before rolling to a stop. Her skin and hair burned away, her lidless eyes stared at the horizon. On the horizon another bright flash lit low in the sky. With no protection, her eyes burned away. Shortly after that a blast of wind came to knock against her head, rolling her a short distance to strike a rock. Heat was all around her, as if everything had burst into flames. Another wind from the opposite direction blew past.
The heat had caused grass and brush to burn all around her. Loosing her head wasn't a big thing when her body was intact. She just picked it back up and put it on. Her body was in small pieces all over the place now. She had to be spread over a hundred meters of ground. Focusing on her right hand fifty meters away, she got it to stand up on skeletal fingers to begin putting herself back together.
'Well, this sucks,' she thought.
.
Fang-Fang was watching his sister through a scry one of his witches had made. When the scene went white, he knew they had been betrayed. If the Chinese had done that, then he knew he was next. "Make us a strong shield, as fast as you can!" he snapped at his witch.
She threw up her hands and cast her spell. Not long after that, his house around him was torn apart and set fire to by a gigantic explosion. Fang-Fang braced himself. The witch's shield held. The one over his mountain did not. The blast torn down the mountainside, ripped homes apart, the bright flash set fires to everything on the mountain then the powerful concussion of wind causing massive destruction for miles in each direction.
Looking around at the complete burning devastation, Fang-Fang nodded once. "I understand now, no mercy," he said in a growl.