Saturday 18 December 1999, Glastonbury, England, Luna Nova
The cultists' attack came en masse, three days had passed and the main locations where witches were prevalent received a mass attack at the hand of cultists who went about risking as much as possible, including some who died and blew themselves up to ensure an end to the witches. The witches council in Leeds was completely dominated by the group, the WCI bases being deactivated, as well as the magical police, the most important academies of witchcraft, where Luna Nova could save herself by using magic to hide the place from the sight of the cultists and they would also take the opportunity to change that the place is an orphanage, much for having a strong magic can guarantee some efficient defenses to the coming of the cultists. But the situation got even worse, since the witches had a huge decrease, everything was decentralizing and losing administration, happening all over the world including, not only in the UK, all centres of magic were with a group of cultists that were going on suicide missions to finish with the witches.
In the midst of all this a group of witches decided to risk everything to try a counter attack, gathering all in Luna Nova, taking some weapons to prepare a direct attack on their own, these brave witches would be the hope for a better future of magic. Laura McLaren, Bernadette Cavendish, April Jordan, Rosemary Morris, Velma Bernhardt, Eleanora Maria White, Naomi Ben Asher, Scarlet Taylor, were all willing to do whatever they could to restore magic back to the world, take back control of the witch organisation.
They were there on the board after getting some information regarding where the cultists
' base was, which was even a big of a revelation as it was right in Leeds Castle where they had invaded.
" It's today, let's make history," said Laura, who put on gloves.
" I'm still scared to death, I've got a bad feeling about what might roll forward here," said Rosemary.
" We will make it Rose, we are all in this together, these cultists will be stopped and we will return in new times for magic " Said McLaren who was getting more ready.
" What if we fail? " Question April.
" If that happens, we cannot give up, we will go back and plan a new attack, we have to stop the cultists from spreading throughout the world, from sweeping witches family by family, they have gone towards the more important ones, but soon they will also go after the less important ones," said Bernadette.
" You know you have a very low chance of survival don't you? " said Miranda Holbrooke.
" It doesn't hurt to try, we'll have a better chance if we get more support, this is too serious a situation to pass up," said the redheaded Irishwoman in a very serious tone.
All of them are finishing the last touches, as they put on enough protection, such as bulletproof vests, and go out armed, since magic alone would not be what could save so much, given the seriousness of the situation, they would not go alone, since on the outside there were also some trucks with some agents that were left over from the magical police and the WCI that also bought the idea because of Rosemary's appeal.
" Now it's all or nothing, we have to take this place back, show no mercy, shoot every cultist with everything, they didn't when they killed ours " Laura said as they all practically saluted.
" Curious that you are the one leading the whole group," April said.
" I'm not that, I just wanted to leave a message for everybody, this is an all or nothing mission " McLaren said.
" Look no one here among us has a firmer hand to lead than you Laura " Morris said.
" So let's go! " said the red-haired Irish girl getting into the truck.
They were leaving from Luna Nova, the several trucks full of witches completely armed and militarized, it was a small army there with 56 brave girls that would give everything of themselves to risk the invasion in the base of the cultists, that took care of the own council of magic to be in their hands.
A trip that took a good time, but soon they were arriving close to the Leeds
castle already being received by shots and rockets launched in direction to them that had to go down and already they
were in a more distant position, but not in the truck that Laura was piloting that was with all the friends, she was continuing in the middle of the mine field.
" Laura! Do you want us to die before we get there? " said Bernadette who was in the next seat.
" They're not going to get to us " said a confident McLaren.
" Laura! We've gone too far! " said Rosemary.
" If we stop now it will be worse! " said the red-haired Irish girl.
The truck kept accelerating, dodging the launched rockets, even having a little help from Bernadette who deflected some of the shots with magic and with that they could get closer, where the truck ran over two cultists jumping what looked like a bridge to the other side hitting the wooden gate that was falling down and then continuing straight in the corridor until it hit the wall, which with that they were getting out of the vehicle since some bombs were planted in it.
" Now! " Said the blue"eyed one who pressed a button.
An explosion goes off inside, knocking down the walls and kind of burying that corridor, what was left was just a path to the side where the whole group went walking up the next staircase already shooting towards some of the cultists coming towards them.
" That was a pretty silly idea if we didn't have magic, but we can't afford to spend like that, how are we going to have enough against the leader of this thing," Cavendish said.
" I agree with Bern, it was a big risk, we are in a smaller group, we should be helping the other group " Morris said.
" We've got to have a group that's going to take the risk of a head"on collision with the cultists and split it up, so we give the others time to come and be safer, clearing the way at our rear, now let's go," McLaren said.
" I hope this strategy works Laura " April said.
In all this pressure they keep walking through the stairway, where after they shoot a bomb on the back way to bury and so they won't be caught by the back, going well grouped until the top floor where a smoke grenade is thrown and that's where the witches shone, starting to attack the cultists that were there using magic, only that some of them touched the attack, they went using heat vision and some shots came towards the group that took cover, in the middle of this, they noticed that they were surrounded, what together they create a magic dome involving them while all are shooting at the same time, but then all the ammunition that was trapped in the middle of the dome is released and comes back with everything towards the group that ends up hitting each other, some die, others are stunned, which is the cue to run out of that room after throwing a grenade, where explosions go rolling, Only in the next hallway, it was also full of cultists, they shoot against the group, they try to defend themselves, but one of them is hit, Scarlet, gets a shot that gets on her arm, but even so she takes the bullet and keep attacking, kind of ending up dropping the gun.
" Love! " Said April as she saw the injured woman, which she couldn't even answer, as she then started to be pierced by shots, even with the magic dome, which all the others around were running to dodge the heavy shots returning to the room they were in, as they noticed that the shots went through their magic.
" April! April! April! No," Laura said in desperation, but then she was held back by the others who were kind of covering her in the middle of the room that was all destroyed after some dead cultists had exploded there.
" They killed her... " Said Scarlet healing herself by hiding in the middle of a pillar.
The cultists are entering in the middle of the room, Laura, furious, gets loose from everybody and goes together with Scarlet, where they start to use magic to disarm one by one, without the need of a dome, with all the movement speed McLaren had, is punching each cultist, with the help of the Irish redhead that kicks some of them towards the cultists, who die or fall unconscious, being remarkable the aura on fire around the blue eyes of the short woman.
" You will all pay for what you did to my friend! " Said the furious witch, who was attacking the cultists and even nearly being hit, including a few glancing shots that caught her in the leg and arms, which was reducing the number of cultists in that room, but eventually they had nowhere to go.
" Oh, shit... Oh, shit... Oh, shit... We have nowhere to go... There are too many of them, we can't stay here and wait for our death " Rose said, as McLaren went to her knees crying on the floor.
" It's all my fault, all my fault, what the fuck! If I knew there were so many I wouldn't risk that entrance, now I've lost April... April... I grew up with her... " Said the Irish girl crying deeply, even being consoled by her friends around her, but all that peace ended with trembling.
Simply the pillars in front of the door were knocked down and from there a robotic machine was appearing with huge machine guns that was firing everywhere and everyone was trying to run away, worse for Scarlet, who was still in the way, but gave a mercy shot that caught the pilot of the machine right on the head.
" Scarlet! " Said Laura in despair.
" Let's go! I'm going to get this thing " said Eleanora who was getting into the machine.
" This time we will go on with more security," said Rosemary.
They were reloading the weapons, this time opening way with the machine that was shooting against the cultists groups, but that ended when another one appeared and Eleanora quickly got out of it as well as the others were taking cover not to be hit, but a grenade came to appear in the middle of all, that were jumping to dodge the cover, The gap that the machine needed to come out shooting in the direction of all that were fleeing, what ended with the shots almost catching in Velma that in desperation used a teleportation spell which she was specialist, fleeing of the situation, while the others were casting spells against the machine that was with the holes where the bullets leave locked.
" Oh, shit! Velma's gone! Velma's gone! Now we're the only ones left! " McLaren said.
" I think we'd better take a retreat," Morris said.
" Now? April and Scarlet just died! Velma's gone and she'll probably die too! We can't give up that easily Rose! " Said the desperate Irish redhead.
" Let's get on with it! " Eleanora said.
" For April! For Scarlet! For Velma! " Naomi said.
" Let's pull back! " said Bernadette.
It was kind of in this impasse, they still continued to advance, only this time, more slowly and in a safer way, what even so was still very risky, because the number of cultists was much bigger as well as the machines that they possessed, not being enough to cause the necessary damage, what even so the stubbornness of the majority was what was winning, until they arrived in a corridor where they only had machines similar to those that they faced, but many.
" Laura! We don't stand a chance, do you really think we can go against it? " said Rosemary.
" I don't know about you, but tell Andrew that I exist, protect Ruth " Said Eleanora who was starting to reload her weapons.
" Eleanora! No!" they said in despair, until Maria White simply stepped out of the penthouse.
She went on to take several shots, barely managing to fire back, even throwing a grenade, where desperation struck for Naomi who went to her wife to try and save her from the worst, but was also shot, which was then where McLaren realised what a mistake it was to just stand there advancing.
" Now we can't do it anymore... We're really going to have to pull back," Laura said as tears fell.
" Don't think of sacrificing yourself like Eleanora! " said Bernadette holding her wife.
" It was all my fault in the end, I guess this way I can pay for my... " Said the redheaded Irishwoman being held up.
" No way Laura McLaren Cavendish, our children aren't even done yet, we have to go in a safe way " Cavendish said giving his wife a telling off.
" Come with me, turn yourselves into rats, I will try to make a strategic retreat " Rosemary said with a smile on her face.
Without much choice they did this as the sound of the machines got closer and with this Morris kept the two little mice inside the pockets of her clothes, which she then took a deep breath, using a transport spell, she went to the other side of the penthouse, where precisely the machines were looking, then she was propelling herself with the help of magic in high speed, managing to deceive the pilots of the machines that were shooting to the other side thinking that they were going to advance, but it was in the tactic of retreat.
" Shit... They saw us, now I'll try harder, you can't die, you are the hope of the new generation, if we lose you, who will protect the witches in the future? " Said Morris who kept running, even shooting at some cultists that kept appearing, but her peace ended when several appeared in front of her own.
She took a deep breath noticing that they were going to shoot and with that she catches the two little mice, she throws them towards a window, kind of leaving them each one inside a grenade compartment, what Laura ends up seeing of the hole of the grenade compartment then her friend being simply shot, falling then in the other side where they ended up falling around the moat of the castle in the middle of the water, they were getting out of there still in the mouse form, together they were trying to be discreet, until returning to the group that had remained of military witches where they transform themselves back to normal. McLaren's expression was quite noticeable, her eyes were opaque, she couldn't stop trembling in trauma, after losing all her dear friends.
" So how is it on the inside? " Asks one of them while the redhead remained in shock completely silent.
" We're pulling out, we don't stand a chance, it's the best we can do to survive," Cavendish said.
" Rose... April... Scarlet... Eleanora... Naomi... " Those were the few words the traumatised McLaren could let out, she was barely crying, her face was one of complete horror, no expression at all, which was worrying his wife a lot who was already crying at the situation even after healing her.
" Love... " Said the Scot hugging the woman, still quite devastated.
The two were hugging each other and soon Laura's expression changed to a deep cry, where she was throwing all the tears out in relation to everything that had happened, together with her wife, while the truck was returning to where Luna Nova was, in the middle of the road, the cultists were still trying to follow, which was another concern, but the defenses were enough to avoid their attack.
Not only were the two of them in that reaction, as was Velma herself who was also crying constantly.
" I am a coward, I am a coward, I am a coward, I am " Said the very one until she had her mouth shut by Bernadette.
" You are not a coward Velma, we simply had no way of knowing that the enemy was this powerful, now we have to go back, pull ourselves together and I am sure that you alive can be another hope for our new generation to come " Cavendish said.
" No! I'm simply a coward, I can't join this fight of yours, I just want to live in peace, I'm sorry, I can't... " Bernhardt said.
" It's okay Velma, no one here wanted it, you don't have to feel bad about it all, we had to pull out in the end anyway, you're part of a new hope too... " Said the Scottish woman consoling the Frenchwoman who was still very devastated.
" My best friends from all over the world, they all losing their lives, right in my eyes, right in front of me, I saw Rose turning into a Swiss cheese in front of me, she was being shot hard every time by those cultists, they killed them all... All our plan of bringing a new era of magic, all our building of years of friendship, all the good times, going down the drain, they killed our dreams, they will pay," Laura said in a very melancholic tone.
" Love, we have to think about the future now, let's think about resting our heads a bit, let's think about Diana, Hellene, what's to come, we also have to think about how to touch everything that was left behind by the lassies, including that thing Daryl wants to do to curse us, we have to stay alert," Bernadette said.
" I wish I had the firmness that you have my cabbagedish, you are strong, more than me mentally, I can't get the images out of my head or anything " said the trembling McLaren.
And after this attempted attack things were kind of stagnating in relation to the cultists, they were starting to initiate the next part of their plan, which involved annihilating witch's family by family. Laura was getting days and days traumatized, she had constant PTSD's about the day and everything she lost, she was shaking all the time, she could barely do the things she liked, she was in a deep depression, to the point that she even thought about taking her own life many times, but with the help of Bernadette things were getting less worse.
The mission to counterattack the cultists was a real failure, which showed how they were a power in relation to everything, prepared for the situation that got much worse, leaving only Laura, Bernadette and Velma left in the middle of the group that just left in a completely easy way.
See you, cultist witches...