What?! Two updates in two days?! What gives? This is what's happening. Accept it.

Besides, Chase came out from his hiding place and wanted to say hi.

Thanks to everyone for reviewing. Or not and just reading. :P Whichever you did.

Vampire Girl: I think Douglas is starting to like you a bit.

KrisKat: It's about time, right?

shinxshinx1595: Don't worry. Took me about 10 minutes of staring to solve the key. It ended up being similar to how Douglas did it. :3

AllAmericanSlurp: Seems like a PM question there, but yes.

Moonlit: O_o Calm down there.

I actually do not have much to say here - it's more of a filler chapter than anything else. So let's just do this thing. Chase?

"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers. (And I rock.)"

*Sigh* Thank you, Chase.

"If Plan A fails, remember that you have 25 letters left."

Unknown

"Real friends don't get offended when you insult them. They smile and call you something even more offensive."

Unknown

Chapter 6 – Azazel's Bane

Chase

Nightfall: Check.

Good disguise: Check.

Imp sidekick: Check.

Cue the Mission: Impossible theme music!

I was humming the song to myself while I was perched in the tree in Lovett's yard and checking the planes for anything dangerous (specifically, Jasper, who didn't seem to be around). I got a strange look from random people – a raven, singing spy music? How strange! – but ignored them as I checked the planes for anything suspicious. Beside me, Oly was clinging to her branch in the form of a robin while we waited and watched. She was missing some feathers in odd places, showing off shallow scratches and one deep gash across her belly. It was kind of satisfying to see, considering that she had literally bitten off the tip of my right ear. Not to mention the scratches that I myself had gained.

So take that, Douglas. I could hold my own against other demons.

Well, an imp that was weaker than me.

Shut up.

You should've eaten her.

Oly pointed at the front door with her wing, catching my attention. "See that?"

"What?" I asked, examining the door frame. It seemed normal, except for the cross carved into the top of the door, a star surrounding it. "The symbol?"

"It's a trap," Oly explained. "If we set it off, it'll light us up like candles."

What fun! "You're too small to be a candle," I teased, fluffing my feathers up a bit.

Oly smacked the back of my head with her wing, but was grinning as much as a robin could.

I know: No sarcastic comeback, no insults, no nothing from her. We'd actually been getting along fairly well since we decided to throw hands. Who knew that all it would take for us to play nice was literally beating the snot out of one another? It was pretty neat.

"So, how do we get past the door?" I asked. I figured that she would know what to do about it, since she had recognized it in the first place.

"We don't," Oly snorted. "Unless you have some sort of instant shield or something." She started muttering about how much easier things would be if Douglas were here to help us counteract the shield. Because, sometimes, magic worked that way. It involved us providing the energy and a summoner with the right words to direct it, if the demon in question wasn't just insanely powerful (which some very rare ones were; some made afrits look like little puffs of smoke that anyone could blow away). Traps were one of those things that we couldn't fix on our own.

But most demons weren't bionic, either.

"I actually do have a shield," I informed Oly smugly. It was one of my bionic abilities that still worked. The shock from that stupid portal had taken out some. Levitation – if I wanted to, I could fly now, anyways – my GPS and all associated tracking abilities with it, my ability to remotely hack computers; you get the idea. I was lacking some skills in exchange for new ones. Easy come, easy go. "But how will that get us in the door? It's not like we can just open it and walk in."

"You've never just ghosted into a place before?" Oly asked, actually seeming surprised.

Ghosted? I thought we were demons, not ghosts. I shook my head. "Never heard of it."

Oly covered he eyes with one wing, looking up dramatically. "No wonder Master sent me with you: You're bad at this."

"Are you going to explain or not?" I asked, feigning annoyance. Truth be told, I wasn't trained for something like this, and we both knew it. I was used to working with Adam and Bree on missions. Not another demon who had a better understanding of her powers than I did of my own.

It was time to learn! Yay!

"We turn into smoke, find a crack, and drift right in," she explained. "Easy."

That actually sounded fun. However, I had one problem with it. "My shield isn't intangible, you know. It can't go through cracks."

"Then keep it surrounding the trap," Oly suggested.

Damn it. I should've thought of that. Oly was pretty clever, when she wanted to be. "Right; keep it over the trap. Got it."

"Then come on. And don't blow away!" Oly warned before she took off, flying towards the door.

Leaping from the branch, I drifted after her to land at her side around ten feet from the door. "Let me get that sucker down," I said before I glared at the trap. After a second, a blue energy field surrounded it. Score! "That should do it," I informed, feeling proud of myself. I just outsmarted a magic trap with technology. I think I earned a little pride.

"Then we need to hurry," Oly said. "That thing isn't exactly hidden."

Just because it glowed, she had to get all pessimistic. I know what you're thinking: She does have a point. Still, she could've let me enjoy it for a moment.

I watched her vanish into a small string of smoke and float towards the door. How she was able to go forward, I didn't know. Hopefully I figured it out quickly, though, because I was already in the middle of softening up into smoke myself. As it turned out, it wasn't hard to move after all. Rather like a snake, only using air currents to your advantage. How awesome was that? Don't mind us; we're just little wisps of smoke, come to float around your house. Nothing to see here.

Well, except for the trap. It somehow detected us.

Magic: It was some serious shit.

The cross began to glow orange, and a spark started at the base, traveling along the edge of the star rapidly, burning the symbol permanently onto the frame as it went. When Oly reached the door and drifted along the bottom for openings, the spark reached the bottom of the cross again, which promptly shot a massive beam of white light in our direction. It instantly overwhelmed my shield, causing it to fail. Lucky for us, though, most of the impact had been absorbed, so we were left with little white sparks that rained down around us. Normally, I wouldn't be that worried – sparks vs. smoke; I think we'd win – however, one spark did manage to graze where my side would've been, creating a great amount of pain for something so small.

Life lesson: Magic sparks vs. smoke: Sparks won.

Forcing myself to ignore it – not like I could do anything; I was freaking smoke, for christ's sake – I watched as Oly excitedly flattened into a small string and vanished under the door. Following her actions, I flattened out and forced myself through the area she had, finding the almost – imperceptible crack to be quite sufficient for sneaking through.

Ghosting: Not just for ghosts.

On the other side, Oly was waiting in midair. She had already turned into a gnat for greater ease of mobility and waited while I did the same. "You got hit?" she asked, noting the wince of pain I somehow managed to give even when I was just an insect.

"I'll live," I informed her – ignoring the joyous fact that each beat of my little wings made it hurt worse. "Let's just get this over with."

"Don't look at it," Oly advised before buzzing up to the ceiling.

Right: Don't look at it. Nothing made you lose heart faster than seeing an injury. I carefully checked the planes again before following her.

Have you ever been a gnat? The world seemed so much larger. It was an interesting perspective, and I couldn't stop looking at every little thing as we flew around the rooms on the main floor. Nothing like being absolutely tiny to give you a new sense of wonder. I mean, flying up the stairs when you were a centimeter large? Awesome.

Of course, all of that was kind of lost on frustration when we found, upon searching the upper floor as well, that the place devoid of life.

And evidence. Especially evidence.

I mean, shouldn't all evil villains keep journals or written notes about what they're plans are? It was adventure movie 101! It was supposed to be obvious that we had found the bad guy.

Stupid real life. It just had to be complicated. It was such an asshole sometimes.

However, I had to acknowledge the sheer relief that we hadn't gotten the joy of meeting Jasper.

Oly finally landed on a desk lamp in an office-type room with a sigh. "On a scale of one to ten," she began, "how mad do you think Master will be when we show up again?" She gestured with her front two legs and continued. "I mean, we have nothing from this search. Not to mention the mess we left in his house."

"The search? He'd probably understand," I answered, landing on the desk. "The mess, however…." I could think of a few of things that would infuriate Douglas about the blood on the carpet, but honestly didn't know who he'd be more angry at: Me for getting hurt, Oly for hurting me, or both of us for fighting in the first place. It was like Russian Roulette: Who would bite the bullet?

If you play your cards right, you can blame it all on her.

"Great," Oly grumbled, turning into her gargoyle self, since the house was empty and she was no doubt getting that uncomfortable itching throb from maintaining a form. I knew I was. "What a productive day. 'Oh, you wanted us to get undeniable proof? Sorry; we asked Lovett, but he kindly asked us to leave while he cleared away anything incriminating.'"

I was trying to listen to her monologue. I really was. But something about the sound the lamp made when she shifted her tail to wrap it around her legs caught my attention. It sounded…I don't know, loose. Changing into a black cat – I hoped I shed on Lovett's desk. And that he was allergic – I started sniffing around it.

"What the hell, kid?" Oly asked, jumping up and back as I reared up onto my hind paws and rested my front ones on the lampshade to investigate the top.

And her weight being gone did the trick.

For one, I don't like falling down. Never have. So, when the lamp tilted backwards and I went head-over-heels over the top of it towards the floor, you could say that I was pretty peeved about it. And it didn't help the whole "burned side" issue. What did help – slightly – was Oly picking my up by the scruff of my neck and pulling me up high enough to see over the desk to where a section of the wall had seemed to vanish. "Nice catch," she complimented, putting me on the desk where I promptly shook myself off.

"Who has a secret room?" I growled. Of course, I had to be quiet after I added a quiet, "Never mind." I had lived in a hidden lab for most of my life, so I had no room to talk.

"Who cares?" Oly answered me. "Something tells me that we hit the jackpot." Without waiting for me, she scurried into the room.

I checked my planes before I followed her, a bit more weary. Something didn't seem right. Maybe she was willing to walk into a room that radiated magical power like it was nothing, but it was something that I wasn't used to.

Yes, we could feel magic power. For example: If I had gotten right up against the trap outside, I could've felt that it was charmed. And the room I padded into had so much energy going for it that it made my fur stand on end. "What is causing that?" I found myself asking Oly as I joined her in the secret chamber of doom or whatever it was. It was pretty stupid: Nothing decorating the walls, one piece of idiotic-looking furniture: A tall, narrow display table. This guy was the worst interior designer ever.

Oly, however, was standing with her mouth open, an expression of sheer awe on her face as she pointed at literally the only thing in the place. Granted, I hadn't exactly looked above my cat eye level, so I missed the top of the table at first. But, upon further inspection, I saw something that confused me further: An amulet, protected by an orange magic shield that appeared on plane three. A small ruby was sunk into a solid – gold circle that had runes carved into it, suspended on a golden chain. It wouldn't have meant squat to me if it wasn't the thing that was giving off the feeling of extreme power. "What the hell is that?" I asked, wrinkling my nose at it.

"It's Azazel's Bane," Oly whispered.

I shuddered at the name 'Azazel.' Nothing like one of the strongest demons to ever exist to get you in a bad mood. "Why is it called that?"

"It was used to destroy Azazel a thousand years ago," Oly explained quietly. "It will literally absorb any magical attack thrown its way. Even Azazel couldn't hurt the person wearing it. It was lost for centuries. I wonder how Lovett found it."

Damn. Now that was a protection spell! "Why would Lovett even need it?" I asked.

"He doesn't," Oly instantly said. "Master does."

You need it.

"I thought we were supposed to be flying under the radar here," I noted as Oly approached the amulet. "If we steal that, Lovett is going to know that someone was here."

"Half-breed, listen: This guy is planning something huge," Oly reasoned. "If we take this, then we might delay him. Because this obviously isn't just about your little family anymore. If he has Azazel's Bane, then he and whoever he's working for are obviously going to do something on a drastic scale. Now just shut up and watch. I'm going to show you how to get past a magic barrier."

More learning! I watched – still not totally on board with the idea to steal the thing – as Oly blew a small wisp of smoke through a tiny hole in the shield.

Contrary to belief, magic shields aren't perfect. They have weak points, holes, flaws, and defects, just like everything else. Just because it took days to set up didn't mean that it was impenetrable. Although, I didn't exactly know how one could exploit the weakness until I watched Oly hold her hands in front of her like she was grabbing something and pull them apart like she was tearing something, straining visibly.

And the smoke began to expand, slowly growing to enlarge the hole.

Note to self: Learn this trick.

After two minutes of struggling, The hole was finally large enough for her to reach in and pick up Azazel's Bane, which she proceeded to cradle against her chest. "Let's get the hell out of here," she said, practically trembling with excitement while she flew back into the main office with me on her heels. "Master will be most pleased."

Steal the amulet, urged my voice. You deserve that power.

I don't want that power, I thought irritably as I followed her down the stairs and watched her just open the door this time. The trap had already spent itself – magic traps were a one-shot type of thing – so we just walked out like it was nothing.I didn't want something that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up constantly. Besides, I would be constantly targeted by those who wanted it for themselves, which is another problem I had with giving Azazel's Bane to Douglas. Being targeted wasn't something he needed. However – barring the lovely burn that was making moving oh, so fun and my pessimistic thought pattern – I couldn't help but thinking that our little mission was much easier than I thought it would be.

Of course, I was wrong. But I wouldn't know that until later.

But, but...The Davenports?

This chapter was already pretty long. I didn't want to make it fly off the charts into mini-novel territory. :P Don't worry; they'll come back.

Feel free to review. Or not. Whatever works. :3

And enjoy.

*Bows and exits*