by T. S. Mann
***
Electra stepped carefully between the bodies of fallen Collegians that lay strewn across the floor. She was particularly careful not to look down at any of their faces. Meanwhile, Brother Falcon held two fingers up to his ear as if speaking into an invisible earpiece.
“Beach head secured. We read six hostiles left – the three senior staff members, the two Sullivan boys, and the traitor. However, the internal architecture of the building has just changed, and we no longer have a bead on Forrester and St. Angel.”
He paused as if listening to silent instructions and then nodded. “Understood.” Then, he lowered his hand and addressed the six paladins nearby.
“Mother Eagle is coming through. Kestrel and Riverhawk, open the portal. Everyone else, defend the perimeter.”
At Falcon’s command, the two paladins crossed their swords as if ready to duel. Kestrel then spoke a phrase in Latin which his counterpart answered before they finished together with a unison “Amen” to complete the spell. Then, they slowly stepped back from one another, their twin blades rasping as metal scraped against metal.
When the two blades finally separated, there were arcs of red electricity that jumped from blade to blade until eventually the very air itself was rent and a portal opened.
Mother Eagle stepped through led by her guide dog and accompanied by another four paladins. She looked around the room despite her blindness, and Electra could feel the old woman’s magical senses wash over her.
“Ellington and the Caulfields are approaching from the south. I believe they seek to set up an ambush. The two agents of the Adversary are hidden from me.” She smiled. “But you can find them, can’t you, Argus!”
The guide dog barked twice. She squeezed on the handle to the dog’s harness, and it slipped loose. Argus took a few steps forward, shook his head roughly, and then shifted its form to that of an unnaturally large white wolf with gleaming green eyes. The beast sniffed the air experimentally and then bounded off after its prey. At a nod from Mother Eagle, Brother Falcon saluted smartly and then followed the wolf on its mission, and after rolling her eyes, Electra did as well.
***
Moments later, the last three Collegians standing were cautiously making their way down a corridor, hidden behind multiple supernatural veils. None of them were optimistic about their chances given the number of intruders. Suddenly, Widget, still in her tiger form, stopped and sniffed the air before growling softly.
Doc nodded and glanced around. “I sense them too. I suppose this is as good place for a last stand as any.”
Bryce snorted. “Yeah. The Charge of the Light Socket Brigade.” With that, he lifted his arms that were still crackling with electricity, and with a flash of light, he was subsumed bodily up into the corridor’s lighting system.
Seconds later, eight paladins crept around the corner and into the hallway where Doc and the tiger were waiting. Thus far, none of them were able to perceive the Collegians in any way. When the entire squad of paladins had made it into the corridor, Doc raised his arms in their direction and shouted out an incantation. “Power down!“ Instantly, his own veil collapsed, for such protective illusions ended at once when the one veiled took any aggressive action.
Now able to see Doc and the tiger clearly, several of the younger Strangers reacted in surprise and fear to the presence of such a large predator. The older and more experienced of them were equally surprised to realize that most of their own shields had instantly been seriously degraded, several to the point of complete failure. But none of the paladins had time to react before jagged arcs of raw electricity rained down on them from the overhead lights.
While several of the paladins screamed in pain before falling, most still had enough magical protection to shrug off the attack. With a roar, Widget charged forward and immediately knocked two paladins to the ground before they could recover, while Doc overloaded the sleep centers of another three causing them to slump to the ground unconscious.
But the remaining warriors quickly regrouped. Two of them crossed their swords over one another while chanting in Latin. In response, there was a flash of light as all the wild electricity was drawn to the crossed swords and then forced back into Bryce’s surprised and prone form.
Immediately, Widget growled ferociously and bounded in their direction, but before she could attack, one of the paladins slashed out with his blade, and a bolt of black energy shot out at her, taking her down instantly. Bryce had just enough time to scream her name before the two paladins who loomed over him struck down at him with their swords.
Once he was silent and still, the remaining paladins turned towards Doc and edged slowly towards him. A few made quick slashing motions with their blades and then disappeared, only to reappear behind Doc further down the hall.
If the elderly man had any fear, he didn’t show it. Instead, he merely held his position after casting a surreptitious scan of his two friends that revealed them to be alive but wounded and unconscious. Then, moving as one, the remaining paladins charged towards Doc with a mighty unison battle cry, as if intent on turning him into a human pin cushion.
But when the various blades got as close as a few inches from Doc’s body, they all simply … stopped. The paladins glanced at one another in surprise, and some focused their will and tried harder to stab the Collegian but just as unsuccessfully.
“Your combat magic and training are both as impressive as one might expect from paladins of the Unity Blade,” Doc said calmly, almost blandly. “But none of you are above the level of adept in your preferred Axioms. I, on the other hand, am a master of the mental arts. And today, I simply don’t think that I’m inclined to let any of you harm me. And so, you won’t.”
Doc made a subtle gesture with his hands, and the paladins, without thinking very much about what they were doing, simply backed away and gave him room.
“Now then,” he said with an unnatural calm. “Take me to your leader.”
The Break Room
After several minutes of arguing with one another while cursing the Collegians who had sealed them into the room, Matt, Luke, and Ethan finally settled down to take stock of their situation.
“So worst case scenario,” Luke said, “this base is under attack?”
“Yeah,” Ethan replied while pacing around the room. “And probably by the Church of the Unity Blade. Goddamit! I knew I should have insisted they get me out of town first thing! Do you have any idea what the Church does to traitors?!?”
The two brothers looked at one another. “Um, no?” Luke replied. “What do they do to traitors?”
Ethan grimaced. “Well, honestly, I don’t know either. But I’m sure it’s something appropriately … biblical. Stoning or crucifying or something.”
“Calm down, Ethan,” Matt said. “Panicking won’t do any good. If we can just get out of here, there’s a portal just down the hall that we can use to escape.”
“Great! Any ideas for doing that?”
Matt rubbed his eyes while he tried to think. Meanwhile, Luke had made his way over to the enchanted drink machine and put his hand on the activation square.
“Luke?” Matt called out. “Is this the best time for munchies?”
The machine made an odd noise that indicated a rejection of Luke’s request. He sneered at the machine in annoyance.
“I wasn’t asking for munchies. I was asking for bottles of Everclear, but apparently, they don’t want people drinking on the job.”
“… Everclear?” Matt asked dubiously.
Luke coughed and answered defensively. “I, um, thought we could stuff’em with strips of cloth and make Molotovs.”
“... Molotovs?!?” Matt exclaimed incredulously. “We’re sealed in a ten-by-twenty room, and you want to make homemade explosives?”
“Forget it, Matt,” Ethan said. “Your brother’s a necrotheurge now. Left to his own devices, he’s always going to go with the most violent solution available.”
Luke seemed offended.
“You make that sound like a bad thing. But we do need to start preparing a defense of some kind, don’t we? I mean, we’re stuck in here, and according to you, the place is under attack by sword-swinging warrior-priests while the defenders are a bunch of nerd-wizards. I’d say the smart money is on the sword guys, which is unfortunate since they’re the ones that want to kill us.”
Matt turned to Ethan. “You’ve actually trained with the Church, right? Plus, you’ve got that magic wand!”
Luke perked up at that. “You’ve got a magic wand? Why don’t you just cast Magic Missile at the doorway or something?”
Ethan looked at him disdainfully. “Well, first, magic missiles don’t even do that in D&D. Second, all my wand can do is put people to sleep, and the paladins are trained to parry it with their swords. And third, and most relevant of all, Dr. Ellington confiscated it when I got here. As for my training, I've had less than two months of actual combat instruction -- just enough to know I suck at it.”
Matt shook his head in frustration before walking over to the bricked-over doorway. He put his ear to the bricks to listen for anyone on the other side. After first, he could make out nothing but perhaps a vague mumbling. But then, he could clearly make out two shouted words on the other side, and his eyes widened in surprise.
“Oh shit!” he yelled before diving for cover.
Twenty seconds earlier…
Electra and Brother Falcon had finally tracked down the missing break room where the three boys were contained. While Doc had done his best to conceal them, Electra still had a sympathetic link to the magic she’d cast on Matt two days earlier, a link that allowed her to track him easily. They were still unable to find the gym where Lindsay and Mickey were contained, however, so they allowed Argus to continue his search while they dealt with the three rogue Strangers.
Electra tapped the bricks. “Bryce Caulfield’s work. Molecular reconfiguration is one of his specialties. Warding as well. It will take time to unweave this magically.”
Brother Falcon studied the wall with his own magical senses before responding.
“Maybe. But no matter how good he is at reshaping matter, conceptually speaking, this is still just a brick wall. The Invisible College is powerful when it comes to concrete manifestations of magic, but they never seem to appreciate its narrative aspects.”
Electra looked at him quizzically. “Meaning?”
He grinned as he slid his sword back into the extradimensional scabbard contained within his coat. “Meaning … I’m gonna try something almost childishly direct.”
Then, he faced the brick wall and slipped down into a three-point football stance before taking a deep breath and shouting out two words that left Electra completely astonished.
“Hey Kool-aid!”
Inside the break room, Matt had barely flung himself out of the way before Brother Falcon smashed through the brick wall as if it were cardboard.
“Oh yeah!” the paladin yelled triumphantly as he pulled his sword back out just in time to parry a weak jinx from Ethan. Electra followed Falcon into the room and immediately ran up the wall and across the ceiling with incredible speed to land behind the former squire. Ethan had just enough time to turn in her direction before she took him down with a flawless scorpion kick.
Nearby Luke, who had never encountered Electra or her martial artistry before, took a second to be impressed before he lashed out with his own nascent magical powers, unleashing a ball of black fire that she narrowly cartwheeled away from.
“Huh!” he said with some surprise, as he realized his hands were still wreathed in deadly black flames. “Didn’t know I could do that!”
“Neither did I,” Electra responded coolly. “I guess my friend here was right. Sometimes the direct approach is best.”
And with one smooth motion, she pulled out one of her guns and casually shot Luke in the chest. Across the room, Matt screamed in horror and fury.
“LUUUKE!! YOU BITCH! I’LL KILL … ooof!”
Matt’s cry of rage and loss was cut short when Falcon slashed at the boy’s legs with the flat of his blade, knocking the boy down onto his back. In a flash, Falcon had his sword at Matt’s throat.
“You know, kid, I honestly feel like I’ve been waiting all day for this,” the paladin said contemptuously before pulling his sword back and then plunging it through Matt’s heart. The boy screamed once more, this time in pain, before he went still. Falcon turned towards Electra, who regarded him somewhat disdainfully.
“Well?” she asked sarcastically. “Was it everything you’d been hoping for?”
Brother Falcon grinned. “Even better!”
CHAPTER 16:
BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
The Private Office of Dr. Parker Ellington
1:30 a.m.
Doc was mildly amused when the paladin opened the door to his own office for him. By his reckoning, the paladins of the Church of the Unity Blade were a violent breed, but at least they had manners. Inside, Mother Eagle stood in front of the window as if taking in the view.
That view was false, of course – an illusion meant to provide some natural light to a room that was twenty feet underground. And in any case, the spectacular Paris skyline complete with the Eiffel Tower in the distance was rather lost on the blind woman.
“Or is it?” Doc mused to himself. “I suppose she’s probably skilled enough to perceive and appreciate the illusory view even if she can’t precisely see it.”
He said none of that, however, as he made his way to his desk and the chair behind it. He'd expected to find the leader of the Unity Blade sitting in his chair when he entered as a way of asserting dominance. Perhaps he'd misjudged the woman. Or perhaps she was merely daunted by the sheer number of protective spells he’d laid on that chair and over the whole office -- the younger Collegians were generally cloaked as college students and thus were prone to "pranks."
The two paladins in the room stiffened as he sat, as if waiting for him to strike with some magical weapon hidden in the desk. It was wasted effort – Doc had not required weapons to strike at his enemies in a long time.
“Well, Helen,” he said, “and do forgive me if I decline to call you Mother Eagle – congratulations on your utterly gratuitous and pointlessly violent attack on a center of learning. I’m sure any comparisons made between your group and the Spanish Inquisition are entirely intentional.”
Mother Eagle turned towards his direction. “Your levity is refreshing if inappropriate, as it seems your precious Invisible College at this moment is reduced to a faculty of one and no student body at all. Honestly, Ellington, surely you foresaw this outcome when you chose to give aid and comfort not just to an agent of the Adversary but to a full-blown incursion by one of his dark angels.”
Doc leaned back in the chair. “You know, you can call me Joe if you want,” he said softly. “I think you’re perhaps the only human being left who remembers my real name, let alone being familiar enough to use it without malice.”
Her expression grew cold behind her dark glasses.
“No, thank you, Dr. Ellington. I think it best that we not trade on faded familiarity from days long gone. And kindly refrain from using my own True Name. After all, it is wholly inappropriate in light of the role you played in the death of the only other person I ever allowed to use it.”
Doc was saddened at her response. “As you wish. But you and I both know that I am not responsible for Brendan’s death. And neither was Mickey St. Angel. Nor, certainly, were either of his two sons. Brendan died a hero for stopping the Event Collapse of 2002 from engulfing all of Boston instead of just a few city blocks. And I don’t believe he would approve of the … doctrinal changes you imposed on the Boston congregation in his name.”
“Enough!” she snapped. “Where are Mickey St. Angel and Lindsay Forrester?”
“They’re both in a place where you can’t touch them. And they’ll remain there until you and I can some to some sort of reasonable agreement as to how t
o handle them.”
Mother Eagle looked thunderous. “You risk the survival of the human race with your rash desire to protect St. Angel’s life?!?”
The man shrugged. “Just as you risk the survival of the human race with your obsessive desire to kill St. Angel out of pointless revenge regardless of the legitimate need. It’s all a matter of perspective, wouldn’t you agree?”
Before she could give an angry retort, the door opened, and Electra Dellamorte entered the room.
“You won’t believe this … but we’ve caught an intruder! And you’ll probably never guess who.” She stuck her head out of the office and yelled. “Bring him in!”
A few seconds later, a lean but handsome middle-aged gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair and wearing a $3000 suit entered the office with a rather smug expression on his face.
“Good evening all!” he said brightly before checking his watch, a Bulgari Octo gold wristwatch that cost more than the average car.
“Or perhaps I should say good morning! Lionel Bartok, Esq.! I do hope you don’t mind me just sashaying in like this, but I happened to be driving by and noticed that all your wards were down for some reason, so I just popped in to see if, oh I don’t know, anyone needed a mediator to handle some nasty intra-order dispute!”
He looked around the room with an amused expression. “So, does anyone need a mediator to handle a nasty intra-order dispute?”
Electra snorted at Bartok's flippancy while Mother Eagle turned her head in Doc’s direction. “Did you send for this … Mammonite, Ellington?”
“Well … we did call him at one point because we were absolutely desperate.”
He turned to face the new arrival. “My understanding, Lionel, is that you turned us down flat due to the absence of any profit-making potential.”
The Mammon worshiper waved his hand towards Ellington dismissively before taking a seat in front of the desk next to Mother Eagle.
