[18th November 2010]
[Highlands, North of Fort William, United Kingdom]
"Ok magic darkness spreading...what are we facing now?" Shayera demanded in a rapid shout as the thundering of horses filled the darkening air as a wave of cold assaulted her despite her heavy armour. That had mere moments to prepare themselves as beams of green light shot from the Lanterns hovering in the air nearby as human soldiers were moving to fire their weapons. Oh...and one of the humans had turned into a...Demon? of some sort wielding an unnatural feeling sword made of blazing fire. Something to add to the list of 'strange things' she had encountered, a list that had been ever growing since she and Katar had arrived upon this world from Thanagar.
"IT'S A FECKING WILD HUNT IS WHAT IT IS!" the chubby human from this SHIELD shouted up to her, Diana and the others looking very unmartial despite his combat gear to stop the Starro organism taking over him "COLD IRON AND MAGIC WILL HURT THEM AND..."
CrackCrackCrack CrackCrackCrack
WHOMPWHOMPCrackWHOMP
CrackCrackCrack WHOMPCrackCrackCrack
Then the roar of weapons fire from the soldiers drowned out whatever he was saying before he dashed off towards the command vehicle, phone in hand, as Shayera spread her wings...surging forward with a roaring war-cry at the nearest...creature on ghost horse?...that was out of the arc of fire from the local human soldiery. In the end this was only the most forward part of the quarantine force, and the attackers were...charging on sparkly magic horses as her mace roared with energy before slamming into the hastily raised shield of the first almost ghostly...human?...rider. The force of the blow staggered her back a second...but set the leading foe flying off its mount as it...vanished like fog as land covered itself in darkness...
"Damn your fast..." she muttered as the enemy she'd hit rolled up from its prone position, rising up in battered armour faster than any humans without a Meta-gene or other ability, with a laugh from its mouth and blade swinging for Shayera's head. She snarled in pain as the strange blade, impossibly, partial cut through her hardened Thanagrian battle armour in her arm as she used that arm as a block...dashing in against the foe's forward movement. Ignoring the flash of pain she slammed the shoulder of the injured arm into the creature's chest, pushing its weapon out and away from them...then slamming up her mighty Nth metal mace into its face with a battle-cry.
...sending it airborne a moment...before the body vanished too like its horse, though accompanied by almost childish laughter...
Sadly she had no time to dwell on her immediate victory as another of the horsemen charged towards her, this time with two massive black dogs on either flank...then went down as multiple rounds from behind her slammed into the armoured rider sending them and their mount staggering to the ground...
...but not the two hounds that howled loudly already charging at her, snarling loud and feral from behind glowing red eyes as shadowy mist seemed to cloak them as they charged towards her. She moved, gripping mace with both hands as the sounds of battle echoed all around her. Feign attacking the nearest beast with her mace...then twist to smash a booted foot into its face and spin her attack to smash her mace down into the side of the second beast as it roared out it pain...
'Need to get airborne...' she thought immediately as she pushed herself out of the attack as the closest beast was slammed away from, rolling over itself on the ground, but the one she'd kick initially was snarling at her as it raced back towards her judging from the sounds behind her. Not only that, other foes were charging towards her, along with a cold mist that followed in their wake blocking vision somewhat.
Pressing feet into the ground she braced herself, then pushed upwards as her wings rose and fell in one well-practiced motion...leaving the snarling beast attacking her to jump through empty air. Glancing to her side she saw the flashes of the primitive gunpowder arms of this world in the sudden gloom, and Diana and the Demon battling an armoured figure taller than the others and clad with a horned helm of some sort.
She moved to intervene...when suddenly she blocked at pole-arm like weapon thrust at her from above and the side as a winged version of the enemy came at her with a warcry in that weird sing-song language. Then, charging behin the riders she briefly made out a wave of dark clad figures on foot moving at speed through the sudden fog bank...
--
"Long have I heard of the Erl-King's Might; and I must say it quite the Sight; but now thee...ooff..." the 'Demon Knight' rhymed as it swung its blade at the being they fought. The Erl-King Diana noted with a grimace as her ally in the battle was flung backwards into stone wall at the blow of their foe's blade. It was like fighting trying to fight Ares she thought as dashed in with her own sword at the foes blind spot...
...only to be blocked as the tall warrior with the antlered helm moved to block with his massive claymore with preternatural, but somehow almost casual, speed to smash the weapon into her shield. Something she'd barely managed to get braced in place before being driven backwards through the ground as her armoured knees tore a small grove into the earth she passed over her.
Glaring back at her foe she watched it ignore being hit by the main gun of one of the local APC's, not even flinching at the blast to the side of his helmed head as it gave a casual gesture with a one hand at the vehicle without even looking in its direction. Great green vines erupted and began to envelope the blocky armoured vehicle as Diana jumped back at the foe, shouting a battle-cry and swinging her blade...
But blocked with ease as the enemy warrior swung his claymore one handed, driving her blade to the ground and swing...
"Ughhh..." she grunted painfully shoving herself back up to her feet after being slammed into the now badly damaged armoured vehicle. Just in time to see their enemy framed by a pillar of emerald light as the alien Green Lantern, Kilowog she remember, shouted something from the sky above.
It staggered the so-called Erl-King a moment...before a sudden sweep of that massive blade upwards in an arc caused a rumbling thunder and some sort of shockwave that smashed the pillar of light and staggered the Lantern in mid-air. Then with a wave of hand, summoned from the ether she guessed, tiny winged humanoids appeared in the air beside the being before her...then with odd chiming laughter surged up into the air at Lantern Kilowog. She caught the eye of the Demon Knight, nodded...
"Have at thee!" she shouted rising once more, planting one foot into the ground and throwing her full strength and speed into the attack as the flame encased 'ally' named Blood moved to attack on the other side of the local mystical being. God perhaps she admitted as despite being attacked simultaneously on both sides it somehow managed to block both attacks at the same time...then laughed as Diana smashed her shield into the sword and the trio of them exchanged blows in rapid succession.
'He hits as hard as Clarke or Martian Manhunter' she grunted as the exchange of blows came to an end with her being once again pushed away by the force of the blows. Seeing as Hawkwoman almost slammed backwards...no another winged woman thrown by Hawkwoman...into the massively built warrior as the winged Thanagarian woman roared a battle-cry and swung her mace at the mystical beings head...
...only to be dodge and a gauntleted fist smashed into her face and sending Diana's friend flying into the ranks of the local warriors as they formed a ring of sorts around their APC's and tank. Though she herself could not indulge her desire to punish this evil-doer as two more of the 'lesser' warriors of this Erl-King charged at her and block and swirled her blade at them.
Gunfire was loud, and mixed with screams and shouting amidst the mists as found these warriors unnaturally fast and deadly; their blades while unable to damage the armour of Hephaestus was cut through the extra armour she wore to prevent a Starro creature's controlling her through skin contact. Those weapons did not seem particularly strong...but they were strongly magical in some manner, even enough to draw blood from her...
"FOR THE MASTER! WE DRINK YOU DRY!" voices screamed as two men, and a woman, dressed in dirty casual clothing charging out of the mists at her hands curled like claws and fangs...
'Fangs?' she thought smashing her shield into the face of the first of them while using her blade and movements to deflect the blade strikes of the almost dancing beings in armour. Great...now she was dealing with Vampires in Man's World as well as what were apparently the Sidhe of these lands. Still, she wasn't sure if they were or not so she settled for attempted to disable them in case they were merely just ensorcelled mortals of these creatures known for doing such things...
CRACKWHUMP! CRACKWHUMP! CRACKWHUMP!
She blinked as the portly Irishman in armour appeared with three soldiers around him, shotguns in hand as the supposed wizard rang a bell for some reason in one hand...though it seemed to be working as the two ethereal warriors screamed in pain under the blows before dissipating into misty nothingness. A golden Ankh was blazing in the air above the soldiers and Diana couldn't help but give a faint grin as the familiar form of Kent, well Nabu, in his Blue-Gold of Doctor Fate hovered surrounded in a golden nimbus of magical power. Her smile expanded to a larger one as the other members of the Justice League on call appeared, as well as more soldiers and what she guessed were SHIELD mages judging from young Fortune's presence amidst them...
--
"Well Squidy my friend...looks like it's time for us to part and make our separate ways in life again. It was profitable while it lasted" he said to nobody in particular as he drained the last drop of blood from the body and shoved the corpse to the ground. Looking at the security camera monitors he watched as his 'business' partner left with the alien elf girl and the two magic green rings through the portal he himself had come through so very long ago. Wiping the last drop from his mouth he checked that the recording equipment had been backed up and working correctly...
...then hummed a jaunty tune to himself as he placed the backpack of various items he'd wanted over his shoulder and strode towards the exit from the security room. He could feel his children dying...but they were the new bloods, useless and greedy, and as King it was their duty to die for him and enable his disappearance into the shows once again. Squidy would flee back through the Portal...and unlike his majestic undead self would show up on all the cameras security footage. It was unfortunate they'd had to shut down operations so soon, but it'd been a valiant attempt to get things up and running with the Satanists who'd ruled this land wiped out.
'Well that's why we pay tithes to the Noble Huntsman for protection' he noted to himself exiting the building and glancing in the direction bright flashes off in the distance at the edge of the village. Eventually the creatures of the Feywild would get bored, or demean themselves having fulfilled their bond, and return from hence they came.
But they'd have easily served their function in buying time for his august self to escape into the cave and back down into the Earth. Not having a reflection, or appearing on standard videos, could be rather inconvenient at times but right now it would encourage pursuit of someone else. After all...everyone hated Mind Flayers once they figured out what they did; and there was enough footage of Squid doing his thing to get that across to the ignorant of this world. So with one last glance into the distance the King gave one last royal salute to his subjects before descending into the darkness...
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