3
Frank's exclamation got them all to turn around, just in time to see him shove his eye back in the socket.
Hermione's brain seemed to have processed what she had seen the fastest. "You...but...eye...?"
"Another replacement part. Look, there's a guy out there carrying an alien weapon. One shot will turn this wall into molten dirt. A second shot will turn us all into meat candles or solid charcoal. We've got thirty seconds before it charges up."
Before Frank was done with his explanation, Harry raced to the hole, stuck his wand through, and started blasting.
"Bombarda Maxima! Bombarda Maxima! Bombarda Maxima!"
"Hermione, take down the wall, now!"
Hermione, used to following Harry's orders in battle, did as she was told without a second thought.
Harry fired the second the wall disappeared, using the only spell he could cast silently to increase his speed. Three Stupefy charms later, and they were clear.
** - HPDEB - **
"Frank, another wall?"
"No need," I told her, and covered the distance between us and the enemies at full speed.
The bastards were still unconscious when I killed them. I grabbed the Man Scythe, stood up in the middle of the tunnel and flipped off the rest of the motherfuckers.
They shot me. Eight bullets. I dashed back to cover. Why do I tempt fate like this?
The young magicians were mortified.
** - HPDEB - **
They saw Frank twitch, and heard him say "Squirrel," just before he lunged back out into the pile of bodies.
"Wait! What are you doing?" Hermione cried.
Frank returned in between "you" and "doing". He had an oblong object in his arms. It looked like an enormous blood-covered, warty sausage with a gaping hole in one end. The smile that stretched across his face was more disturbing than the heaping pile of dead bodies, or the bullet holes in his clothes.
"I'm making a brilliant tactical decision." Frank replied. "This is the enemy's weapon."
"That's exciting!" Said Harry. He wasn't quite sure why he was excited, but he decided to roll with it anyway.
Frank looked down at the object he was holding, nodded minutely, and pushed a button on the underside of the weapon. It started to hum. Hermione found the noise menacing, but rather exciting as well.
"Is that like one of those gun-things?" Ron asked from his relatively safe position against the wall.
"Yes," Frank answered, drawing out the end of the word into an evil hiss, "it most certainly is, Ginger-Ginger. I'm going to use it, too."
** - HPDEB - **
I turned around and walked back out into the mess we'd made. The rest of the zombies hadn't moved from their original position, except to mill around as if they had nothing better to do. Their little coffee break wouldn't last very much longer.
God knows what the kids thought of what I did next.
"Excuse me!" I hollered. "Time to die."
"Wait!" A zombie yelled. "You're that insane guy that the bosses want so bad, right?"
"Probably!" Why not be honest.
"Great! Let's get him!" The fellow yelled, and they all rushed forward.
No more time for banter, I thought to myself, and aimed the exotic energy weapon down the tunnel.
Fire!
The gun expelled a fulminating glob of blue energy which shot across the distance between me and the oncoming assholes. It didn't just hit one of them, it blew right through his body, and the zombies behind him. Five bodies hit the ground, and shattered like solid charcoal.
** - HPDEB - **
Hermione followed Frank, curious to see what he would do. She wouldn't admit to either Harry or Ron that Frank's offensive abilities were practically an aphrodisiac to her.
As the blue blob sped forward, she made a decision to help Frank deal with the rest. But she really wanted to see what else he could do. That meant no killing for her.
Levicorpus! She thought.
"Harry, Ron!" Those boys had better come help.
Levicorpus!
"Stupefy! Incarcerous!"
There were just too many to prepare them for Frank. She'd have to take some out. "Bombarda Maxima! Bombarda Maxima!"
** - HPDEB - **
Harry heard Hermione's yell and responded automatically.
He raced forward and just started firing curses. He didn't even really think. Reducto, Bombarda, they both worked. He took out six before he realized there weren't any more left standing. Frank was taking care of those that were down (or floating) but not out.
** - HPDEB - **
Ron heard Hermione's yell and saw Harry take off toward her. Bloody hell he was fast. How had he never noticed before? Ron shook his head and followed. He took time to aim and downed one of the creatures floating in mid-air.
Once again he was late to the battle, but once again, he'd killed one. Ron felt pretty good about his contribution.
** - HPDEB - **
I felt Hermione approach, and knew she'd be helping me whether I needed it or not. Good person, that one.
There were six near me, and I had an awful feeling that the one with the shotgun was going to try and take one of the kids. Couldn't let that happen.
I don't get acrobatic very often, but I needed to take them down at nearly the same time. Very fast mental math happened, and then I ran up the curved wall of the tunnel. When I landed, I was in the middle of the group. The Man Scythe was in my left hand, and my right hand was...very flexible.
I took five heads in half a second, and cut the gun in half. The last kill fell right onto the blade of my darling Man Scythe. I punched through his head with my right hand.
When I was finished, I saw the tied up presents that the youngsters made for me. Zombies in rope bondage, levitating upside down. Wow!
Easy decapitations.
After I was done, I turned back to the kids. Curly was watching me with a look that made me think of an eager puppy.
"Good girl," I told her, without thinking.
The three of them were good together. That was the first time I felt their bond. I can't explain it, but I knew that these kids were born to be together. Formidable singly, but a giant robot when put together.
An image formed in my mind. It worked, believe me.
** - HPDEB - **
Good girl. He'd called her a good girl. Hermione knew she'd need to examine later why that made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
** - HPDEB - **
Harry watched Hermione, expecting an explosion for that comment. Her eyes were wide and there was a flush to her cheeks. But, to his surprise, the expected tirade never came. Rather, a slight grin graced her face and she looked down, shyly. What the hell was going on with Hermione?
More, what was it with the man himself? He's clearly insane, but there's something about him.
Frank was tall, wearing black clothes, with short hair that might have been brown in better light, and intense eyes. There was a little beard under his bottom lip. Truly, he looked like a modern rogue, a pirate from the future.
Harry nearly saw the ineffable something that surrounded their comrade in arms, but couldn't explain it.
** - HPDEB - **
Ron saw the last zombie get up from under the pile of offal, and then a blur when he moved.
"Oi, there's…"
Too late. The final enemy had Hermione by the throat.
** - HPDEB - **
Hermione gasped, it was as if claws had appeared at her throat with the speed of a spell.
"Don't think about moving, you atrocious little cunt. I don't want you. I want the scythe man."
She saw the look on Frank's face and hoped she'd never see anything like it ever again. It was an expression that made Voldemort seem like the kindly old lady who lived next door.
"I'll kill her if you move, you fucking bastard," the zombie snarled, "You're not that fast. That goes for the rest of you, too."
** - HPDEB - **
I'd wondered if there was one left. There'd been a lot of movement, blood, and noise. A single individual can get lost in that hullabaloo, especially when they have a low body temperature to begin with.
"Okay, Mister Fast," I said quietly, "what do you want if it isn't the girl? Me?"
"You. They'll be here soon. We were supposed to keep you here until they come. All you have to do is stand still, and my job is done. They'll choose me to evolve."
"Them," I said, "the little orange guys, huh?"
The zombie giggled like a loon. Grand. He's insane on top of being insane.
"Yes. Just you stay where the Hell you are. After they take you away, I'll play with these three. I'm not choosy."
I saw Harry flinch, and I told him to stay still. "That goes for you, too, Ronald, hold still."
Ron did exactly what I expected him to, and exactly what I needed him to: he got pissed off. What a loud and wonderful distraction!
Me? I moved.
** - HPDEB - **
All Hermione felt was a blast of air. There was a whisper with it.
"Not with my Curly."
Then she felt cold blood fountain across her head and back. The hand around her throat let go.
Soaking wet, she turned around. The zombie's body was on the ground with the rest of them, but split to the waist. Frank standing a few meters away with his back towards her.
"That was a bad thing to do, you know, putting me in a pinch like that." She heard him say.
"Sir...Frank?" Hermione wanted to reach out. Something wasn't right.
"Shh. Give me just a moment more." He replied. "Ah. There."
When he turned around, he held the zombie's head, spine still attached, in his hand. Slowly, his eyes faded from burning insanity to something more easily understood.
He spoke again.
"In the French Revolution, when they were beheading people daily, a doctor observed the heads when they fell." His voice was monotone and very quiet. "Some reported that the heads moved their lips and that the eyes followed objects for up to sixteen seconds after the guillotine's blade fell."
Harry, being a little closer to Hermione than Ron, heard Frank speaking. It chilled him to his bones. He'd seen his share of Dementors, Death Eaters, and Voldemort himself, but never someone who slipped into darkness and slipped back into the light a moment later.
It was a terrible thing to behold, a man cursed to live that way.
Frank crushed the head in his left hand and let the blood and brains seep between his fingers.
** - HPDEB - **
"I'm sorry you had to see that."
It was all I could say to them about it. They hadn't run screaming, so that was a plus.
I don't know what to do around civilians, or pacifists, much less "normal" wizards from a parallel universe.
"We have a larger problem on the way. The aliens are coming for me themselves. This means mechanized weapon systems, and God only knows how many Flatheads."
** - HPDEB - **
"What," Harry began, "is a 'Flathead'? I doubt you mean the kind of screw."
"No, that's what we call the Progeny — that's the name of the species — evolved footsoldiers. They're seven to eight feet tall, pale, naked, absurdly strong, and look like someone pushed their foreheads flat...The Mayans, I think, used to tie boards to babies' heads to get a similar effect."
"That's horrible, that is!" Ron cried. "You don't make a baby's head flat!"
"How much time do we have?" Harry asked.
"I don't know." Answered Frank. "Anything from minutes to an hour."
"Do we fight, or do we run away?" Harry was hitting his stride.
"I don't know yet. I'd rather see if we can get you home before it's an issue."
** - HPDEB - **
I fingered a bullet hole in my shirt absentmindedly. Curly was lost somewhere between her own ears, slowly drying. Ronald was looking uncomfortable, apparently his native state of being. Harry seemed to be full of energy and looking for adventure. Good.
"Harry, bring that plasma weapon. We're going to have a sit down somewhere less gooey." I pointed, he hefted, and we walked back to the smaller tunnel. "We need to look at that amulet too. If there's a way to get out out of here, we need to find it."
The other two followed in a minute or two. Harry and I had already sat down by my bag of nasty tricks and the Man Scythe. The knobby tube rested on the concrete between our knees, and I started hunting for a seam. I wanted to see how the power system worked, and if there was a component comparable to the one Harry carried.
Ron and Hermione wandered over and sat down. I patted Hermione's knee, she'd been through and experienced something rather awful. I vaguely registered that she was clean and filed it away for future contemplation.
Ginger needed something, and I took a wild stab at it. "Hey, Ron, thank you for your help back there. You distracted that asshole exactly how I needed and at the best time ever. I couldn't have saved Hermione as easily if you hadn't acted."
He heard me and perked up so fast it looked like he'd snorted something illegal.
"Thank you." He said. "Anything else I can do?"
I nodded and asked Harry to give him the "amulet" to hold so we could reference it if necessary.
"Hermione, are you up to trying to decipher it? It might help us." I wasn't sure it was covered in the runes she was used to, but better to have her occupied.
"Yes, Sir."
"Harry, hold the gun still. I didn't feel a seam before, and I need to cut the thing open to see how it works."
The young man clamped his hands on it so tightly that his knuckles turned white. A little revved up, are we?
I ran my right index finger down the case of the weapon, and it appeared to cut through. I repeated the action on the near side, and at both ends. When I shifted the housing, it moved.
"Good. Does anyone have a spell that can levitate this piece straight up in the air?"
Hermione whispered, "Wingardium Leviosa," and the section of warty composite flew upwards. Harry chided her for moving it so quickly, but I shushed him.
The inside of the weapon was familiar in the way that a car engine is familiar if you're not a mechanic. I saw familiar mechanical parts, organic bits, a little tank of blue shit that seemed to be a smaller version of the power source they always used...the same crap they pumped through the pilots of their aircraft.
At the other end was the emitter, and that looked exactly the same as the equivalent pieces of their cannons, just smaller. Familiar is good.
"D' you see that bit?" Ron asked, pointing into the gun's insides. "It looks like the amulet, but a pentagon, not a circle."
Sure enough, three "glands" after the power supply, towards the zapping hole, was a piece of stone trapped in a frame. That was new, I'd never seen the inside of a smaller weapon, just the larger pre-disassembled ones. It was right in the center of what I assumed was the pre-fire chamber.
"Energy focus, do you think?" Hermione asked.
"Seems logical to me."
She whispered, "Can we take it out?"
I didn't feel any power flowing through the unit, so I tried to wiggle the frame out. It popped free easily. Much like the other piece the kids brought, it was carved with runes.
"This one is glowing like the amulet was," Harry noticed.
"Don't touch it Harry!" Hermione yelled.
"Are you saying this is charged up somehow?" I asked. "I don't see anything."
"It is glowing," Ron confirmed, "and the same color."
"Fine." I held it up to Hermione. "What do you see?"
She cast Lumos, and examined the pentagonal stone in great detail. Her lips moved a bit, but no sound came out. Then she turned to the stone in Ron's hand and gave it a similarly thorough reading.
"The new stone contains runes for 'enemy', 'fire', 'wound' and 'defend'. Harry's amulet has 'travel', 'time', 'home' and 'people' in corresponding locations."
"Okay. You've said that the amulet stone isn't glowing. Does that mean that it has expended the energy it contained?"
Harry spoke up, "I think so. I mean, it was glowing before we came, so some energy must have been used."
"Put our stone into the weapon." Hermione cut right to the chase. "It might absorb what it needs."
I had some serious reservations about that idea, but she hadn't suggested I pull the trigger. If anyone was going to do that, I'd walk around the corner, stand in the bodies, and wait for the explosion. Without that major concern, I didn't have a problem with seeing if the circular rock fit in the frame. It did.
"Well, go on then!" The young lady had a distinctly bossy streak. "Put that whole bit into the slot."
I shot her a dirty look and dropped the stone and frame into the gun. No one exploded. That's a plus!
"Now," Hermione began, clearly much more at home looking at the universe from a scientific viewpoint, "do you simply pull a trigger, or does the weapon have some sort of 'warm up,' before it is used?"
I nodded. "There's a button on the other side that charges the weapon before you pull the trigger."
"Wonderful! Push the button."
"Excuse me, did you just tell me to push the button. The same button that starts pumping exotic energy through an exotic system that belches blue fire when you pull the trigger?"
She looked at me as if I'd asked why water is blue, and confirmed that she wanted me to push the button.
"If you're wrong, I'll live through this, but the three of you might not." It was a concise way to express my concern, if a self-centered one.
"We're fine with that." Hermione answered for them, but the boys didn't look convinced.
I pushed the button anyway.
"Oi! The rock's starting to glow! Good idea, Hermione!" Ron said. I'm not sure he noticed that the barrel of the weapon was pointed right at him. Poor survival skills.
"Yes," Harry agreed, "but not very brightly."
"Alright, touch me," Hermione directed. "I'm going to touch the stone, and if it transports us, I don't want anyone left behind."
The boys complied. Her hands were free, but she used my knee for support when she leaned over to touch the rock.
"Hey, why are you touching me?" I asked.
"Because," she replied, "I think we might need you."
"What?" I got the question out, and realized that I wasn't paying attention to her hand.
Her finger made contact with stone, and everything vanished in a flash of blue light.